{"id":144475,"date":"2025-05-30T15:51:17","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T15:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/144475\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T15:51:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T15:51:17","slug":"popular-wildflower-meadow-on-verge-of-belfast-road-cut-down-due-to-road-safety-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/144475\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular wildflower meadow on verge of Belfast road cut down due to \u2018road safety\u2019 concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents were shocked to find the meadow cut to within a few centimetres last Wednesday, May 21, after looking forward to its annual bloom.<\/p>\n

Ryan Bradley lives close to the area \u2014 a short distance from the Forestside Shopping Centre \u2014 and had unofficially \u201cadopted\u201d the grass verge in 2023 to plant a native wildflower patch to boost biodiversity among pollinators in the area.<\/p>\n

He had placed a sign on the verge asking for it not to be cut \u2014 and for the past couple of years it hadn\u2019t been, allowing wildflowers to flourish.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The wildflower meadow was cut last week by DfI<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the DfI, however, said that the area in question is part of a \u201csightline\u201d and needed to be cut to \u201censure visibility for all road users\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe department is responsible for the maintenance of the public road network and annually cuts about 45,000km of grass verges,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe area in question, on the Saintfield Road, is part of a sightline and was cut to ensure increased visibility for all road users.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are committed to protecting wildlife and promoting biodiversity, and our grass-cutting policy was amended in 2022 to reflect that. However, road safety must always be our priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Bradley told the Belfast Telegraph that the reason he selected that particular verge was because it was far enough back from the road to ensure it did not impact motorists.<\/p>\n

“While I haven\u2019t had any official permission to do this, over the past couple of years I didn’t think there had been any problems, as wildflowers had been left alone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were not left to grow to a ridiculous height, and I maintain it myself. I cut it every September or early October, and every fortnight I edge the area to prevent these so-called sightline issues.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The wildflower meadow was cut last week by DfI<\/p>\n

Watch: Wildflower Alley in Belfast celebrates 10 years<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only motorists who would be affected would be those emerging from the junction from Breda Park, turning right towards Forestside. But there is a cycle path and a large space of pavement before you can even see the flowers, so this just doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that was an issue, why didn\u2019t they just take the sign down? It\u2019s taller than the flowers ever get to! And the flowers hadn\u2019t even begun to bloom yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that it was even more disappointing that this happened during a well-known conservation campaign called \u2018No Mow May\u2019, which encourages people to refrain from mowing their lawns for the month of May to boost biodiversity and support pollinators.<\/p>\n

\u201cI manage grasslands for a living with a local conservation charity and anyone working in this sector would know that you don\u2019t cut this early in the year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first flowers, usually the Cuckoo flower, comes out in April, and different species bloom in succession until September, the last one usually being the Devil\u2019s-bit Scabious.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was expecting the verge to take about five years to establish, because it takes time to maintain these sorts of meadows. But I only got two. Whoever did this clearly hadn\u2019t a clue.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if it was done by accident, an apology would be great. But this won\u2019t put me off. I still hope to continue to plant wildflowers and improve the biodiversity of the area by doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents were shocked to find the meadow cut to within a few centimetres last Wednesday, May 21, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[8819,2378,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-144475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-amy-cochrane","9":"tag-belfast","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114597585638174031","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}