Highway Grass Cutting

The highway grass cutting for Worcestershire Highways is divided into eight zones for rural cuts which are directly maintained by Worcestershire County Council, which consist of approx 2500 kilometres, receiving three cuts per year specifically for safety purposes.

The six District Councils also carry out the urban grass cutting within their own areas, Worcestershire County Council recommends a minimum of five service cuts in urban areas, the districts may often exceed this number for amenity and landscaping purposes.

Within the highway verges there are 51 protected Roadside Verge Nature Reserves (RVNR) located around the County, which have been jointly maintained by the County Council's Highway Maintenance teams and the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust since 1995. These sites have been set up to protect the biodiversity (wild flowers and animals) that live and grow within the highway verges. They are easily identified by red and white posts positioned at each end of the reserves, these posts also give the mowing gangs as indication that these areas are not to be cut.

Dual carriageways

Throughtout the county there are also a considerable number of dual carriageways that need both verge and central reservation maintenance. Traffic management is required for lane closures to carry out this work safely. To make for efficient and cost effective delivery, these works are programmed and coordinated with the District Councils and other relevant agencies so that other maintenance works can be carried out at the same time. These may include tree works, weed spraying, litter picking, gully cleaning and road sweeping.

Grass cutting of dual carriageways will commence at the same time, with a view to complete within four weeks (subject to weather conditions). Regular joint 'Streetscene' meetings are held with District Councils to discuss activity and to coordinate works. When we start our grass cutting on dual carriageways, the District Councils will also complete litter picks using the same traffic management timeslot, thus maximising 'value for money' as much as possible.

Visibility splays particularly at key road junctions, continue to be monitored and further cutting/strimming has taken place where necessary and with further action taken as and when required.