Plant road and central reservations verges with native plants and stop mowing them

We have had petitions about Neonicotinoids but the real problem for pollinating insects is that their habitat is vanishing. As a beekeeper, I know that the most painless way to increase their habitat (and that of many other native species) is for Local Councils to stop mowing road verges and instead use the money and manpower so released to plant them and tend them so that they burgeon with a wide mix of native plants, especially flowering plants. This does need a new way of councils thinking and for such things as the Royal Horticultural Society "Britain in Bloom" contest to massively mark up those who do this and massively mark down those who mow every time a daisy appears (just look around Stockton, here in the North East they regularly get RHS awards and mow everything down - disgraceful!)

On the approach to Hartlepool on the A689 the local council has allowed someone to do just this. The result is both beautiful and has hummed with insects all year