30 May 2022

Harrow Greens call on the Council to reduce its roadside grass mowing

As we head towards summer, the greenery around the borough of Harrow is blooming, with street trees coming in to leaf, road verges boasting grasses and wildflowers and our parks flourishing with wildlife. With this explosion of nature, Harrow Council has a real opportunity to show it is serious about supporting and encouraging biodiversity in the borough, whilst addressing the Climate Emergency, which it declared back in July 2019.

Unfortunately, the Council at the moment is falling short in its environmental management and failing to show real leadership and the urgent changes needed in the face of a climate and nature catastrophe. There are numerous, easily achievable actions the Council could be taking when managing our local environment, including reducing the frequency of roadside verge and park mowing, using electronic grounds equipment when managing our green spaces and preserving and caring for our existing street trees. These relatively small changes would save the Council and local taxpayers money, improve the living environment for residents and support and enhance our local wildlife. With a new administration running Harrow Council and a new cabinet member for the Environment, Cllr Anjana Patel, we are calling on them to urgently make the changes necessary to support and enhance Harrow’s local environment.

Harrow's #NoMowMay

There have been some encouraging developments coming from Harrow Council this May, especially in comparison to previous years, with the Council promoting Plantlife’s national #NoMowMay initiative through its website and a range of social media posts. Here, the Council has been encouraging residents to put their lawnmowers away and give wildlife the chance to thrive.  Thanks to some dedicated local campaigners, the Council have themselves also agreed to trial a new approach to its management of a number of street verges, reducing its mowing schedule over the summer period. The results of this delayed mowing can be seen along parts of George V Avenue, Honey Pot Lane and the Honeypot Lane end of Crowshott Avenue, plus a part of Kenton Recreation ground.

Emma Wallace from Harrow Green Party says, “Whilst it is heartening to see the Council responding to campaigners’ calls to reduce its grass verge and park mowing over the summer months, it is really disappointing to find out that the Southern side of Crowshott Avenue at the Honeypot Lane end was mown in the middle of May, despite it being one of the nominated #NoMowMay roads.  The couple of roads and the part of park identified to receive a reduced mowing schedule are just a drop in the ocean to the miles of Council managed road verges and parks, which would benefit from this policy.

The Council needs to take on board Plantlife’s ‘Managing grassland road verges’ recommendations across the borough, moving to a “two-cut management programme that allows flowers to complete their full lifecycle rather than being cut down in their prime before they are able to set seed”.  An example of this is in neighbouring Hillingdon, who have already put in place a comprehensive and progressive roadside grass verge managing policy, delaying cutting until July or later.

The benefits of reduced cycles of mowing are multiple, from helping to provide grass and wildflower habitat and food for our insects and bees, which we are seeing an ongoing decline. The longer grasses and flowers also help to clean our polluted air and cool our streets, especially important as we see the ever-increasing year on year temperatures during the summer months. It also means the Council saves money from reduced visits from the council’s 'Green Team', freeing up staff time to spend on other essential activities, such as keeping our streets clean."

A move to electric grounds equipment?

It is important to note that the Council still uses petrol-powered lawn mowers to manage our spaces; reduced mowing would consequently result in less use of these polluting and dirty machines. Harrow Greens are taking this one step further and calling on the Council to replace all of their petrol-powered grounds equipment, including strimmer’s and leaf blowers, which Harrow Green Party have been petitioning against, and move to electric equipment, which is less polluting, lighter, quieter and cheaper.

Emma Wallace says: "Through a comprehensive review of its environmental management policies, including a reduced mowing schedule over the summer months, and a move to electric powered grounds equipment, Harrow Council can quickly help improve the living environment for both residents and wildlife and show its commitment to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2030."

Harrow Green Party call on the new Conservative council administration to show their support for and encourage biodiversity in the borough by:

• Reducing their roadside verge and park mowing schedules across the borough
• Moving to electric powered grounds equipment
• Refraining from any unnecessary tree pollarding, especially in the summer months

The new, Conservative administration must take seriously the urgently need to address the climate emergency and biodiversity decline by preserving and encouraging our existing greenery. 

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