Our aim

During the growing season, we carry out a number of environmental maintenance operations to help keep all road users safe.

Our aim is to:

• preserve visibility sight lines at junctions and bends
• provide a safe area for pedestrians if there is no footway
• protect wildlife on roadside verges, where this does not conflict with safety requirements

Grass cutting

Highway verges are cut to a minimum of one metre in width from the roadside to provide a safe area for pedestrians, preserve visibility and help the flow of surface water along road channels. Visibility sight lines are also cut on bends and near road signs.

Each highway verge, including junction visibilities, will be cut once during this season, except on the ‘A’ and ‘B’ networks where the road verge and junction visibilities are cut twice.

In certain areas, particularly urban housing estates, grass-cutting may be carried out by parish or town councils.

Our grass-cutting programme commences in May and is complete by September, depending on the seasonal growing conditions. The busiest routes are cut first because of the higher volumes of traffic.

When is work happening?

1st cut – A and B roads (including junction visibility splays and sight lines)

• 9 May 2023 to 4 June 2023 (dependant on rate of growth) 3 to 4 weeks.

C roads and unclassified roads (including junction visibility splays and sight lines)

• 5 June 2023 to 30 July 2023 (dependant on rate of growth) 8 weeks.

2nd cut – A and B roads (including junction visibility splays and sight lines)

• 31 July 2023 to 27 August 2023 (dependant on rate of growth) 3 to 4 weeks.

Environmentally protected sites

• Late August or early September (dependant on rate of growth) 1 week.

Please note the dates listed above may be subject to change due to weather or any unforeseen events.

You can see which locations are included on our live map.

This is a preview version of our new maps that allow us to share our works as they happen.  We are aware they may be some display issues when using this map please bear with us while we work to improve these maps.

You can also find a list of routes on the lists below.

A and B roads – order of works

Minor roads – order of works

Please note, grass cutting may be affected by the weather and the dates may change. Work generally takes place during the day (7am to 7pm) with traffic-sensitive routes avoided during peak times.

No road closures are necessary, however, given the travelling speed of machinery required to ensure a good quality cut, minor delays are possible on the smaller lanes.

Hedges and banks

Where there are no verges and the roads are immediately bordered by a bank or hedge, a single vertical swathe of seasonal growth will be cut.

However, the majority of hedges bordering the highway are privately owned. Landowners and occupiers are responsible for maintaining their boundary, except between 1 March and 31 August (bird nesting season), to make sure their hedge, tree or shrub does not obstruct highway users or lines of sight at junctions. Landowners must also remove any debris from the road surface to prevent nuisance and to stop it from blocking surface water drainage systems.

If you spot any dangerous verges or overhanging hedges on the highway network, you can report them online.

Weed treatment

We don’t treat pavements as part of the programme of works. However, under the Noxious Weeds Act 1959, certain noxious weeds, including ragwort, must be removed where they are reported as causing a nuisance to highway users or adjoining landowners. Other invasive species that we treat are Japanese Knotweed, Himalayan Knotweed, Himalayan Balsam and Giant Hogweed.

If you spot any noxious or invasive weeds growing on the highway network you can report them online.

Conservation

When we carry out environmental works we seek to protect wildlife on roadside verges while maintaining road safety.

In late 2018 the Council updated its Somerset Highways Biodiversity Manual and Somerset Pollinator Action Plan (PDF 432KB) which seeks to protect and enhance the amount and quality of pollinator habitat across the county.

This has led to a review of the summer grass-cutting operation and in 2019 only a single 1m swathe of verge was cut, except on specific bends and at junctions where increased visibility is required. The aim was to protect approximately an additional 3km sq of highway verge for wildlife – that’s an area roughly the size of 191 Somerset Cricket Club pitches.

Public Rights of Way

The 2020 vegetation-cutting programme is now underway and focuses on the paths that are most popular and are prone to becoming overgrown. Keeping vegetation under control is all part of keeping the path network safe to use and is achieved through a proactive programme using various contractors and volunteers. This programme is largely proceeding as normal.

Paths will generally receive between 1 and 3 cuts in a season. For those paths that have 2 or 3 cuts per season, the cutting programme will begin around the second half of May subject to the weather and local conditions.

Details of the paths that are cut by contractors, and how often, can be found online at Explore Somerset by selecting the ‘Veg Clearance’ layer from the ‘More Maps’ icon and zooming into and clicking on the path network.

If you encounter any issues whilst out walking, cycling or riding on the path network then these can be reported or checked on Explore Somerset. Further information about using the website can be found in this video: