From: Mark Warters
<mark@markwarters.co.uk>
Date: 23 March 2021 at 12:40:51 GMT
To: "Cllr. C. Vassie" <cllr.cvassie@york.gov.uk>
Subject: Re: Hull Road plans
Thanks Christian,
Glad for your continued involvement in all this.
As for Glyphosate I’ve used gallons of the stuff over the years and accept it will remain in use by local authorities on pavements/roads etc but it should have no place when trying to promote schemes like this as other councils have decided;
I look forward to confirmation from officers that the plans to spray off the roundabout and cultivate it are dropped, This is what it looked like last summer;
This was the second summer after the initial sowing of what I
assume was an annual mix, it will look very much the same this year
as the natural dispersal of seed and germination will have taken
place last autumn, all it needs is overseeding with a perennial
Mix.
No extra labour needed for spraying or cultivating.
Regarding the rest of Hull Rd and other verges across York the most important factor as you correctly refer to is having the right machinery to remove the arisings, officers have ignored for some years now my promptings to at the very least hire the machinery that Lincolnshire CC have for a trial.
If the central verge on Hull Rd is to receive attention I would also suggest that all road signs are looked at - if they aren’t necessary remove, if they have to be there look to relocate onto lampposts and in the case of the sponsorship signs get them onto lampposts as well - they are a huge maintenance liability and even more do when on an infrequently cultivated wildflower Verge...........and we don’t want brown circles spraying around them!
Look forward to the revised thoughts for Hull Rd.
Mark.
Regards,
Cllr. Mark Warters
T: 01904 413370
On 23 Mar 2021, at 09:52, Cllr. C. Vassie <cllr.cvassie@york.gov.uk> wrote:
Hi Mark,
I share your concerns about using Glyphosate and I too noticed that the arisings had all been left.
As I expressed to executive last week when our pollinator strategy was adopted, the city council has a fantastic opportunity to form a partnership with the wildlife trust, the Wheldrake Ings National Nature Reserve team, and the Internal Drainage Board to jointly purchase a suction flailing machine that would enable us all to remove arisings and send them to a biodigester.
I hope that we will make full use of that opportunity. Having spent several hours with a team of volunteers raking the arisings from 7,000 square metres of verge in Wheldrake Ward, it is clear that if we are to make a serious job of wildflowering we cannot rely on teams of volunteers. Our rural verges, those strips of central reservation, the land alongside watercourses, the new wildflower meadow that CYC wishes to plant on the land recently acquired for a new forest, and other open spaces managed by YWT, CYC, IDB and the nature reserves can all benefit from a mechanised process for removing arisings. I know that Cllr Widdowson is as keen as we are to see genuine progress on enhancing biodiversity.
Cheers,
Christian
From: Mark Warters <mark@markwarters.co.uk>
Sent: 22 March 2021 22:12
To: Meigh, Dave <Dave.Meigh@york.gov.uk>
Subject: Re: Hull Road plans
Thanks for this Dave,
After many years of nagging the ‘abandoned’ section of the central Hull Rd Verge is to have some welcome attention - I noted the recent cutting although the arisings were left.
I would however query why the roundabout (2) needs such a drastic treatment - I understood it was simply to be oversown with a perennial seed mix, this would complement the ongoing annual mix that will have seeded itself from last year and was lightly cut at the end of last year, the California poppies in the original annual mix (although not a really suitable wildflower mix on an English Verge) will be well established and ready to flower relatively early.
I would just spot treat any thistles visible on the roundabout and oversow with a perennial mix when conditions are right - probably at the end of this week when it’s set to rain.
I really think spraying the roundabout with glyphosate and then rotovating would be not only a waste of time and resource but a likely PR disaster.
I’ll support and publicise the rest but doing what you propose to the roundabout I won’t support.
Thanks,
Mark.
Regards,
Cllr. Mark Warters
T: 01904 413370
On 22 Mar 2021, at 15:14, Meigh, Dave <Dave.Meigh@york.gov.uk> wrote:
Hello Mark,
This is what is planned for Hull Road.
Area 1 will have four new plots in-between the carriageways approx 300m2 in total. The first plot is where the cycle path cuts through the central reservation near Springfield Cottages. Travelling towards York there are four gaps in the trees. We are not seeding the first gap due to the amount post and signs, the next three gaps are good to use.
No action is planned to the area between the access road to the Park and Ride site and the B&Q roundabout.
Area 2 is the existing roundabout which will be refreshed.
Area 3 will have one new single length on the inbound section of the road, approx. 2m x 180m.
Areas 4 & 5 are the TCV beds.
Our supplier is providing a seed mix that will last for two years and has a high pollinator value. The nature of seed mix will be akin to that which we had on Area 2 two years ago. The mix may vary between areas and have varied height for effect. Given the nature of the plants after two years we will need to start again otherwise later germinating weeds take over.
In preparation all areas will be sprayed with Glyphosate in the next few weeks, then turned over and levelled.
Over the next 18 months we will the using Wheldrake verge scheme for comparison (which has not been sprayed and has the arising’s removed).
Best wishes
Dave
Dave Meigh | Operations Manager - Public Realm (Strategy and Contracts)
t: 07923 217442 | e: dave.meigh@york.gov.uk