North Norfolk complaints at delay in cutting overgrown grass verges

Peculiar spring weather has been blamed by the county council for a delay in cutting north Norfolk's grass verges which will not be completed for another three weeks.

Paul Morse, county councillor for North Walsham, said he had received about half a dozen phone calls complaining at the scruffy, overgrown state of verges in the town.

A county council spokesman said their �600,000 budget was the same as last year and covered a twice-yearly cut of Norfolk's 6,000 miles of verges, mainly aimed at improving visibility.

'Timing of the spring cut is very important. If we go too soon, there is little to cut. This year we have had a wet and cold spell that has held back verge growth. When we reviewed the position 10 days ago, there was insufficient growth to start the cut,' the spokesman said last Friday.

'The recent improvement in the weather had brought a flush of rapid growth and the spring cut started this week. This is about a week later than last year, and will take four weeks to complete.'

Mr Morse said he was 'disappointed, to put it mildly' that cutting would take until mid-June to complete. He added: 'That's not acceptable. People are striving to keep our towns looking tidy and the county council is not helping.'

We were in a period of vigorous growing weather and the grass and weeds were looking increasingly unsightly.

He had received complaints from areas including Brick Kiln Road, Spenser Avenue and Hazell Road.