New announcements from Plantlife

News of the latest campaigns from "Plantlife" in the UK. "Whilst there’s still a wintry chill in the air, Spring has arrived and bluebells, cowslips, and cuckooflowers (also known as Milkmaids and Lady’s Smock!) are blossoming on our road verges again. We’ve been reflecting on one of the busiest winter seasons ever for the road verge campaign. It’s fantastic to see so much interest and enthusiasm for more wildlife-friendly road verges and we wanted to share some good news stories with you: Last month Cambridge County Council announced a new verge management plan to support biodiversity, including cutting times sympathetic to the local flora and trials of collecting grass cuttings. It has been great to work with the council teams on this and see them bring their knowledge of the verge network to add to our best practice guidance to create a really promising new plan for Cambridgeshire’s verges. Also in the east of England, East Suffolk Council have announced 60 new wild sites, many of which are road verges, that will be part of the expanded ‘Pardon the weeds, we’re feeding the bees’ campaign which was started last year. And in Essex, following the successful wildlife-friendly management trials last summer, the scheme will be extended throughout Braintree Borough this year. Over in Wales, Monmouthshire County Council are inviting local residents have their say on the management of verge and greenspaces – if you’re local do take part in the survey. And even if you’re not local to the area, you might like to have a look at the Council’s brilliant Nature Isn’t Neat project, which is changing how verges and greenspaces are managed and raising awareness about the importance of pollinators and wild spaces. What’s happening where? Many of you have been in touch to ask what’s being done for road verges in your local area, and we’re keen to celebrate the steps councils are taking to make road verge management more sustainable and wildlife-friendly. So we wanted to share with you our map highlighting the positive progress being made on our verges. We’re hearing about new projects every few weeks – there’s so much great work happening - so don’t worry if you project isn’t yet featured. We’ll be updating the map throughout the year and featuring more case studies and local projects as we go. If you work in a local authority and want to let us know about the wildlife-friendly verge projects you are working on, please do get in touch with us. We’d be delighted to learn about your work and discuss your projects with you." Contact Plantlife at : https://www.plantlife.org.uk/uk