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    From Highways Agency website

    Verge & Land­scape Maintenance
    •Areas of grass are mown first and fore­most for safety rea­sons e.g. if the grass is long and obscures a driver's vision or to ensure vis­i­bil­ity of road signs.
    •Cones are used to pro­vide a safe work­ing area for our work­force and to pro­tect the dri­ving pub­lic from our vehi­cles and equipment.
    •In some urban areas the grass is mown with an amenity objec­tive to make the area look pre­sentable and these grasses will be cut up to 6 times a year.
    •Other grass­land is main­tained on a cycli­cal basis, with bio­di­ver­sity and safety in mind
    •The road­side verges and soft estate beyond are a valu­able haven for wildlife, and are man­aged to pro­mote bio­di­ver­sity, link­ing with adja­cent habitats.
    •Whilst the car­riage­way can be a bar­rier to some species, mea­sures are con­tin­u­ally being pro­moted to min­imise its impact (e.g otter ramps and ledges).
    •We man­age this habi­tat to pro­mote our native species, as part of the Agency's Bio­di­ver­sity Action Plan.

    An impor­tant ele­ment of the High­way Agency's com­mit­ment to pro­mot­ing safety on trunk roads and motor­ways is to make sure that sign vis­i­bil­ity and for­ward vis­i­bil­ity for dri­vers is main­tained and not hin­dered by over­grown trees or other veg­e­ta­tion. To this end, a num­ber of sites around the net­work need veg­e­ta­tion clear­ance over win­ter months.

    We are also work­ing on a set of Wood­land Man­age­ment Pro­grammes for the Area 1 soft estate, to make sure that wood­land habi­tats are man­aged, and enhanced where appro­pri­ate, in accor­dance with the High­way Agency's Bio­di­ver­sity Action Plan and other Agency guid­ance. The wood­land works are car­ried out dur­ing win­ter months and strike a bal­ance between safety, amenity, nature con­ser­va­tion and value for money. Best endeav­ours are made to liaise with occu­pants of nearby prop­er­ties, to inform them of our works and to ensure that any incon­ve­nience is minimised.

    The Agency has recently installed an otter ledge and other loca­tions are cur­rently being inves­ti­gated. Five dor­mouse pop­u­la­tions have been mon­i­tored, includ­ing one within a cen­tral reser­va­tion, where a joint study with Nat­ural Eng­land revealed that these mam­mals do breed in this con­fined area and that they are also able to cross the dual car­riage­way. There are cur­rently nearly 400 dor­mouse nest boxes and 200 nest tubes installed, and these have been used by a vari­ety of other small mam­mals and birds too.

    Our verges also pro­vide a suit­able habi­tat for a wealth of inver­te­brate species, a vari­ety of birds and many notable plants, includ­ing the Dept­ford pink (an endan­gered species of plant) and 6 species of orchids. It is also cur­rently thought that a Narrow-headed ant nest on the road­side verge, along with oth­ers on adja­cent land, form the last strong­hold of this species in England.

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