Morning View: Eco friendly long grass plan is fine so long as it’s safe

Councillors in Newry, Mourne and Down have called for the grass not to be cut between Warrenpoint and Newry.

This is a six mile stretch of dual carriageway near the border.

The Department for Infrastructure said that it was "very willing to consider any proposals for improving biodiversity at this location".

Such an approach would also cut down on the cost and man hours spent on maintaining grass verges.

Anything that might improve natural habitats is certainly worth consideration in a time of pollution and ever expanding development.

But there are grave dangers from overgrowth, as motorists across Northern Ireland will be aware.

It is not unusual in Belfast, for example, to come out of a side street in high summer and be unable to see more than a few feet to the right to assess what is coming along the main road, at right angles to the exiting vehicles. This is because hedges quickly sprout out and intrude into the sight lines.

Similarly, when grass verges are not cut on dual carriageways it can be not merely inconvenient and somewhat risky, but positively lethal.

In a gap junction across a wide verge in one of the older dual carriageways that allow cars to sit at a space in the central reservation before making a right turn across the main road, long grass can make the manoeuvre so deadly as to be almost impassable. The exiting car has to edge forward to be able to see, in some cases so that it is jutting into the carriageway, at which traffic should be travelling at a maximum 70mph but might in fact be moving at closer to 80.

Keeping on top of grass and bush and tree overgrowth so that it is not dangerous is a never ending task in the late spring, summer and early autumn.

It is tempting therefore for politicians to make savings in such expenditure rather than identifying more controversial spheres of spending for cuts.