Grass Cutting Along Five Acre Drive

This is my annual request to have the grass verge that runs the length of Five Acre Drive cut; currently I feel as if I live alongside a motorway embankment, the grass in places is taller than I am. Each year you fob me off with the excuse it is to promote insect habitat, I take declining insect numbers seriously, but why this section of grass when we have a whole field at the far end of the cul-de-sac and Grow Wilder on our door step? Every other grass verge in Begbrook is cut regularly, including Clarks Drive which is part of the estate. Even the Metrobus slip roads on and off the M32 have been manicured, to such a degree I watched a family walk their dog across the bridge the other evening. If you want to walk your dog in Begbrook Green Park currently you need to battle through 3ft high grass to access the field. We both know the excuse is not valid, this year the evidence is very clear. The verge is not cut because it’s on a slope and the trees that overhang haven’t been maintained for decades, it is difficult and requires a smaller grass cutter than the one used to trim the park. The proof extends to the Begbrook Green Park itself; all the newly planted trees are competing for light and water with grass taller than the saplings themselves; the ‘orchard’ and even the mature trees have been cut around on mass rather than individually. Re-wilding areas is fantastic if done properly, but there is a huge difference between re-wilding and unkept, the bracken has taken over and the ivy is creeping over the curb onto the road. The tree branches hang too low over the road and there are dozens of dead/diseased trees throughout the park, it certainly isn’t a wild flower meadow by any stretch of the imagination. Could you organise the verge to be cut, the full stretch of Five Acre Drive, and possibly whilst you are at it you could pay some attention to the verges along Frenchay Park Road? As a daily Metrobus commuter the hedges/grass extend so far out into the road itself the pedestrian crossing is particularly dangerous. If you are walking away from the bus, using the lane, you can’t see or be seen at by oncoming traffic at the crossing with the main road, the hedges and grass haven’t been cut back enough. This crossing is regularly used by school children and pensioners, it like Five Acre Drive needs some immediate attention.