road verges on rural roads - NERC Open Research Archive ...

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CHAPTER 3. MANAGEMENT POLICIES AND PRACTICES
This chapter outlines the various management policies and practices for
grasscutting on the <strong>road</strong>side <strong>verges</strong> of <strong>road</strong>a in rural areas of England
and Wales. In Table 5 (pages 2247) a synopsis of information from the 58
counties is presented, grouped so far as possible in terms of the treatment of
the different classes of <strong>road</strong> in decreasing order of priority. It will be seen
that management policies vary widely between the counties, and also within the
thirteen subgroups identified. Looking at the variety of programmes for Trunk
and Principal <strong>road</strong>s (or in some instances Trunk <strong>road</strong>s only) (Table 6, page 28)
it w ill be seen that there are at least eighteen different timings, frequencies
and widths of verge cutting for these classes of <strong>road</strong> alone, not including the
ten counties in group 19 that do not fit into any of the other groups. An
attempt has been made to produce a similar table for Class I11 and Unclassified
<strong>road</strong>s but this became so complicated as to be quite unrealistic. The conclusion
to be drawn from this great variety of methods of verge maintenance may be, that
up to very recently, control of vegetation has not been a subject for more than
a moderate degree of management concern. However, now that the management of
<strong>road</strong>sides is becoming a more sophisticated operation, compared to the previously
autonomous activities of the lengthsmen or the haphazard operations of small
farmers on contract,the situation is changing.
In 1972 it was evident that some counties (Table 5) exercised strict central
control from the Highway Department's headquarters, whilst in other counties
responsibility was almost completely delegated to Divisional or Area Surveyors
to discharge within the limits of their budgets. With the introduction of Bonus
Incentive Schemes, Work Study and programming of work (see also Chapter 4) there
is likely to be an increasing amount of central control although this will still
have to be interpreted on the ground according to vagaries of weather, availability
of labour and machines and the actual need for grass cutting. Central control
becomes more complex in those counties that have widely varying topography or
land use, as for example between coastal areas and high moorlands, or holiday
areas and areas of intensive agriculture. There will always, therefore, be a
significant degree of delegation from Central Headquarters to Divisions and scope
for interpretation by the officers in charge of them. It will, consequently be
necessary that a sympathetic understanding of the various criteria for management
is shared not only between headquarters staff, but also between the managers and
work people directly concerned with the work on the ground. In addition where
cost/benefit assessments are made and applied to Incentive Schemes, it will be
important that concern about costs is not allowed to override judgements about
the varying levels and quality of the benefits. Incentive Schemes tend to encourage