UNTIL the last few days, the verges to the country lanes round here were ablaze with colour, with wild flowers in blues, pinks and yellows, numerous wild grasses, trees and shrubs providing several shades of green and several species of butterfly — not to mention birds and small mammals — all providing an enormous amount of pleasure and at the same time contributing to the biodiversity we hear so much about nowadays.

Unfortunately, however, the urbanised jobsworths employed by the council decided that all this had to go and sent out a man with the ubiquitous flail mower to do a bit of 'tidying up'.

Never mind that in a month or so's time the flowers and grasses would have set seed, nothing must inconvenience the motorists who use these lanes as if they were motorways, so now they needn't proceed with that bit of extra caution that the roadside vegetation instilled and they can, if anyone or anything gets in their way, use the verges for overtaking.

It might behove the council to ask someone like Devon Wildlife Trust or Devon FWAG about the best time for verge and hedge cutting, before they completely destroy all the roadside wildlife.

G W J Norris

Pevans Cottage

Bradstone