The smell of Spring will soon be in the air throughout Plymouth once again as Council grass cutters begin their rounds for 2024.
Just like in the previous few years, the teams will be working on a 60 – 40 basis; that’s the majority of grass cut on a regular cycle, with the minority managed uncut for nature.
This approach, lauded by environmental partners like the Devon Wildlife Trust, allows longer grass and flowers to provide food and homes for pollinating insects like bees and butterflies, ensuring that Plymouth does its bit for the biodiversity crisis.
Parks, open spaces and roadside verges are amongst the 60 per cent and regularly mowed, while grassy areas that are of more use to wildlife than people, like steep banks and verges, are cut around the edges with the rest left to grow wild.
But this year, there will some key differences, as Councillor Tom Briars-Delve, Cabinet member for the Environment and Climate change explains: “The approach of managing some of our grass for nature is absolutely the right one. It’s been great to see more colour around our city since this policy was first introduced under Councillor Dann a few years ago.
“But to ensure that it’s a policy that works for residents as well as wildlife we have to make sure that we cut the 60 per cent we say we’ll cut.
“So this year, we’ve invested £300,000 in additional resource with dedicated teams assigned to cutting play areas and cemeteries. We’ve also doubled the amount of permanent staff ensure that we are in the best place to meet our targets on cut cycles.
“We know the 60-40 approach is the right thing to do. We’re far more likely to get the buy-in from residents we need to give nature a boost if we ensure we do what we say we will and keep the areas that our residents cherish regularly cut.”
There have been a number of changes from last year based on feedback from residents and ward councillors. So there will be areas that last year were for wildlife that this year are for people and vice-versa.
To help residents understand where we will or won't be cutting, we’ve put together another interactive map of the whole city which will show you exactly where we have created designated wildflower meadows, the places where we will be leaving them to grow naturally and the places we'll be cutting regularly.
You can find out more about our grass-cutting strategy at plymouth.gov.uk/grasscutting