I WOULD like to take the opportunity to reply to the letter from Brenda Trigg (Daily Echo, June 19) regarding the upkeep of verges in Bournemouth.

The grass on the verges of council-managed land is cut by the specialist grass cutting teams from Bournemouth Parks.

There are six ride on mowers operating 7.5 hours a day for five days week.

For the vast majority of the growing season, the grasscutting on verges is kept under control by these teams.

Each year there is a period when the grass grows faster and when the grasscutting teams take longer to complete their rounds.

This year the main spurt of grass growth has taken place in the last couple of weeks, which is later than usual, as the recent weather has particularly encouraged grass growth.

Obviously it would not be a good use of very restricted council funds to hire in equipment and employ more people just to cover this additional work for a few weeks.

As soon as this period is over, the grasscutting teams will catch up and the verges will be cut at the normal frequency again for the rest of the season.

Furthermore, we are managing some verges with wildflower displays, whilst some other verges are intentionally allowed to grow until the grass seeds naturally.

This variety of grassland maintenance promotes growth in biodiversity, which helps us comply with our requirement as a public body to promote and conserve biodiversity.

Where verges are well used as pedestrian routes we aim to keep the grass on our regular cutting cycle. We understand that not everyone will always agree with this approach but conversely the current policy does attract many compliments.

CLLR LAWRENCE WILLIAMS

Cabinet member for Tourism Leisure and The Arts, Bournemouth council