Management of road verges is the responsibility of the Highway Authority i.e. Dorset Council. The Highway authority needs to ensure the Highway is safe to use and its structural integrity is not adversely affected by vegetation.
Verge cutting is split into two workstreams in Dorset, with distinct programmes for cutting in rural and in urban areas.
Rural areas (higher speed roads – 40 mph and above)
The rural cutting programme covers all verges outside towns, villages and built-up areas.
The total length of rural roads being cut in Dorset is 2691km (1672 miles):
- A roads – 319 km (198 miles)
- B roads – 289 km (180 miles)
- C roads – 1025 km (637 miles)
- D roads – 1058 km (657 miles)
Cutting is being undertaken according to an agreed programme – please see Appendix B.
Cutting is undertaken by a contractor on behalf of DC, in 2020 there is one contractor managing the county, James Rose Contractors
There are two cuts of the A and B class roads, including the dual carriageways, and one cut of the C and D class roads.
The junctions and visibility splays are cut by the contractors and also regularly throughout the year on an ‘as needs’ basis by our in-house staff, and we will undertake additional cutting anywhere on the network later in the season where this is required to maintain safe passage along the highway.
Urban areas (lower speed roads, 30 mph and below)
The urban areas, defined as those within the 30mph zones, are cut in a combination of ways, both by in -house teams and with local agreements with mainly Parish and Town Councils. Currently we have the agency agreements in place with the following organisations:
Our partners receive payment from Dorset Council via a Service Level Agreement which sets out the standard, frequency and geographical area of cutting we expect. Dorset Council encourages all our agency agreements to cut and collect where possible – currently only Bridport TC does this.
Most partners currently cut and leave and prefer a more frequent cutting regime and add extra cuts to the standard 6-7 per year using their own financial resources.
The remainder of cutting within urban areas outside of agency agreements is undertaken by our in-house staff.
There are 5 teams, each led by a Senior Ranger, geographically based across Dorset. See Appendix 1. In some areas the urban cutting cycle is 7 cuts per year between March and September. However, increasingly where we have the right machines, we are moving to less frequent, cut and collect methodology in many more areas - North, Weymouth, Portland, West and Purbeck.
In Blandford, where the cut-and-collect approach has been trialled for the past three years, the number of cuts has been reduced to 2 per year, increasing wildflower populations and maintaining acceptably neat low growing verges.