Cornwall’s Verges
Cornwall’s verges are not just strips of grass beside the road. They are vital green infrastructure that connect our nature network and contribute to heather, more vibrant communities for people right across Cornwall. In recent years our approach has transitioned from traditional maintenance that resulted in uniform short grass across all our verges, to one that allows biodiversity to flourish.
The way we manage these spaces strives towards our strategic goals for nature recovery, carbon reduction and environmental growth, whilst keeping our roads safe and green spaces accessible, and these same principles apply across our rural and urban verge network.
Cornwall Council is the highway authority with responsibility for ensuring management standards meet the needs of roads users, with operations carried out by:
- Rural verges outside the 30mph zone are managed by Cornwall Highways. Typically, there will be a serviceability cut in early season (March) and a late season cut after seeds have dropped. Safety cuts will be carried out in certain locations on an ongoing basis, for instance to provide visibility.
- Urban verges inside the 30 mph zone are managed by Cornwall Environment
- Verges along the A30 and A38 are managed by Highways England.
- Several town councils also carry out maintenance of the urban verges in their area, such as Padstow, St Austell and Bude.
- In some places arrangements are in place with private landowners, or organisations to mange verges in their area.
Grass cutting on our environment assets and public green spaces.
We often get asked about how often areas are mowed, but our approach is to adapt to conditions and provide the right type of maintenance for type of asset:
|
Type of green space |
How we approach grass cutting |
|---|---|
|
Formal Parks and Gardens |
These are managed most often, where some grassed areas will be mowed to maintain the designed appearance of lawns and ornamental planting. We are increasingly creating more space for wildlife habitats within our parks, as we try to reverse Cornwall’s decline in nature. |
|
Playing fields/ Sports fields |
These will be mowed to ensure that leisure activities can take place. There may be space for buffer strips of reduced mowing, with longer grass and more flowers, for pollinators to forage. |
|
Open Cemeteries |
(Sites open to new burials). Care is taken to keep headstones and pathways clear and generally these grass areas will be kept shorter in areas of active use, such as at the entrances and beside paths. |
|
Closed Churchyards and Closed Cemeteries |
(No longer open to new burials). Many closed churchyards have adopted reduced mowing, as a result of community interest in wildlife friendly management. These are ideal spaces to host volunteer groups that understand the wishes of the local community. Care is taken to keep requested headstones, entrances and pathways clear. Where bulbs and other flowers are present, the timing of mowing will take this into account. |
|
Wildlife Meadows |
Meadow patches are now integrated into many of Cornwall’s green spaces, helping to reverse the loss of 97% of our species rich meadows since WWII. |
|
Urban verges |
Safety cuts for visibility and access, are undertaken on an ongoing basis as required. Allowing biodiversity to flourish is also a priority, and the timing of cuts may be planned to respond to the types of flowers present. In some larger verges you’ll see us mow paths and glades through meadow grasses to encourage people to engage with these environments that are beneficial for health and wellbeing. |
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How we cut the grass also responds to environmental needs. In some cases, you might see volunteers using scythes to mow species-rich grasslands in a traditional way that creates less damage to plants and soils. Cormac also have a fleet of cut-and-collect mowers, which pick up the grass cuttings, helping to reduce soil fertility to a level where native wildflowers can compete against more vigorous, nutrient hungry grasses. |
Volunteering in our green spaces
Community volunteers are increasingly engaged with caring for local green spaces, and as well as helping to keep these sites maintained and safe, the volunteers gain training and valuable skills as well as have a great time meeting others who want to create amazing places.
Anyone can get in touch to find out about volunteer activity in your local area: Volunteers@cormacltd.co.uk
Litter
Litter picks are carried out prior to each grass cut to prevent further dispersal. Local groups such as Clean Cornwall and Keep Britain Tidy organise a number of events and campaigns across Cornwall to keep neighbourhoods and our county clean.
If you would like to take part in litter picks or find out more please go to the Clean Cornwall website or visit Keep Britain Tidy where you can get involved. To report any litter that needs clearing or to tell us what you think about Cornwall’s rubbish please visit the Cornwall Council Litter page.
Maintenance of the verges outside your house
Cormac are working with volunteers and friends’ groups who are helping to maintain their local green spaces. We are very keen to support these initiatives. However, we need to make sure that everyone is working safely and is suitably insured when working on council-owned land. If you want to get together with friends or neighbours to help maintain an area of green space then we would love to hear from you. Please email: environment@cormacltd.co.uk
Unfortunately, we can’t give permission for the public to work on Council land without the proper agreements in place.
Obstructions to pavements or paths
If vegetation from a private garden is overhanging or blocking a road or pavement please see our verge maintenance page.
Cornwall Council have the authority to ensure that landowners cut back vegetation to keep roads and pavements clear.
Further information
If you have any enquiries about the maintenance of verges in your area, please email us.