Plantlife, the British conservation charity working nationally and internationally to save threatened wild flowers, plants and fungi has today launched a best practice guide for highways managers, road engineers, operations managers, landscape architects and all those engaged with the creation and management of roadside verges. It covers those aspects previously described in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges wildflower handbook and focuses on the management of lowland and upland grassland verges.

The charity hope to fundamentally transform the management of the UK’s verges and comes as a result of a collaboration project with national highways agencies, industry contractors and other wildlife organisations.

Over 700 species and nearly 45% of the UK’s total flora are found on road verges but it is estimated that 97% of UK’s wildflower meadows have been lost since the 1930s with a 20% drop in floral diversity on our road verges since 1990. This project therefore under-lines the importance of these crucial habitats and how they now need to be properly managed and protected.

These guidelines Road Verge Management Guidelines provide practical advice on how local authorities can fulfil their biodiversity duties whilst reducing management burdens over time, using real life examples of how good management is already being implemented on the ground. The less and later, two-cut approach suggested in the guidelines would replenish the seed bank, restore floral diversity, save councils money and provide pollinator habitat estimated to equal the size of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh combined.