SIR,

Two other Devauden residents and myself attended the MCC Strong Communities Select Committee meeting where we handed in a petition of 165 names from the locality along with a supporting letter from NFU Wales.

It asked for B roads to continue to have a one metre wide cut twice per season as one late autumn cut would cause serious visibility problems.

The feeling at the meeting was that increasing pollinators by planting areas of wild flowers on council land should be implemented. It was agreed that A roads e.g. the A449, A48 and A40 with the wide verges and long straight sections could have one cut without compromising road safety.

It was agreed there should be a compromise on B roads which are much narrower, winding, with sloping verges and many farm gateways where cow parsley and bracken cause major visibility hazards.

Head of verge cutting, Nigel Leeworthy, confirmed that the Devauden B4293 plan would compromise road safety and would receive its two cuts.

The committee agreed that the head of pollinator policy and verge cutting should contact all community councils with a plan of areas proposed, to have one cut on B roads so that residents and councils can respond about any stretches that are unsafe so they can receive two cuts.

It would seem that Alison Howard, head of pollinators, has emailed community councils, failing to send a plan asking for their views on the compromise on B roads as agreed by the committee.

Surely the suggestion by the Bee's for Development representative that verges and hedges should be left uncut, is unhelpful and unpractical on our increasingly busy highways. I also raised the issue of leaving blocked storm drain grids and suggested it would be useful to have a local contact in each area to liaise with highways to keep all drains open as some are missed and this causes scouring of the highway edges and localised flooding.

Members felt this could be helpful.

David Maddocks

(Devauden)