Council decides against £130k verge rewilding plan

The scheme would cost £128,554.62 in total, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said

A council has decided against spending £130,000 on creating wildflower grass verges.

The plan was being considered by Rochford District Council following a trial at the Turret House open space between Hockley and Rayleigh.

Councillors said it could result in highway verges looking better and being more eco-friendly for plants and wildlife.

The authority believed it could be a "low risk" scheme that used plants especially designed for clay soils, but a motion put forward for the plan has been rejected.

Among the 29 verges considered for the project were Ashingdon Road, Rochford, Downhall Park Way, Rayleigh, and Greensward Lane, Hockley.

"The security and successful establishment of the planting is likely to yield a high success rate," council documents read.

They revealed the authority planned to replicate the scheme in parks and nature reserves if the trial was successful.

"This would provide an instant impact approach to rewilding our parks, enable the open spaces team to undertake in-house maintenance of these areas and would increase the pollinator count within our parks and open spaces," the documents revealed.

This article was updated at 09.40 BST on Thursday to reflect the council was not going ahead with the scheme, as previously reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.