Crawley wildflower verges mowed by mistake

The verges, in Elizabethan Way, Maidenbower, are part of the county council’s Community Road Verges scheme, used to attract bees and other pollinators.

They were doing rather well until early this week when they fell afoul of the mowers – much to the horror of residents including the Maidenbower Bee Wild Project Group.

Writing on social media, a group member said they were ‘devastated’, adding: “These verges have signage on the lampposts next to them and have the greatest registered biodiversity of our verges in the scheme.”

A council spokesman said: “Our contractor has been in contact with the project group to apologise for this error and we would also like to offer our apologies to all those concerned.

“We understand the contractor has put measures in place to avoid a repeat of this type of mistake in the future.”

There are currently 24 Community Road Verges locations in the county.

Rather than being cut five times per year, they are cut once in the autumn, with the cuttings raked and disposed of by the community.

The aim is to lower the fertility of the soil, enabling wildflowers to out-compete the grass.

Michael Jones, leader of Crawley Borough Council, said: “Crawley Borough Council have reached out already to the Maidenbower Bee Wild project to help with reinstating it, but sadly it will take some time to reverse the damage done so I hope the county council takes better care in future.”