John Wilson cherished the wildflower meadow he helped to create near his home. But after a complaint from another resident he has seen his hard work reduced to tufts of dry grass
A man who spent years carefully nurturing an award-winning wildflower meadow near his home has been left “devastated” after the council came along and cut it down, he said. John Wilson, 74, has seen 10 years of effort destroyed after a complaint from another resident.
The plot, beside a residential street close to his home, has been mown by the council, leaving just a handful of wildflowers and tufts of dry, churned-up grass. John said: “I’m really, really devastated.”
His local council confirmed it was mowed at the request from a local resident. It says it has to carry out maintenance and needs to “balance the needs” of other people living nearby.
John, from Newcastle, is the chairman of a group of 49 people who manage 10 wildflower plots across the city. This one had a special place in his heart because he could see it from his front door and it won a “Thriving Wildflower Award” from the Royal Horticultural Society.
John told ChronicleLive: “I’ve been doing this for 10 years, I’m really committed to this one and in the past they’ve always respected the boundaries. They’ve mown a metre-wide strip around the edge, around the kerb and the bus stop, and so on.
“I’m really, really devastated and very fond of this plot, it’s my best one. The flowers grow better here than any of the others. It’s got trees in it and that actually helps because it dries the ground out and the wildflowers don’t get smothered by the grasses so much.”
John continued: “With these things, they’re not uniformly popular. Some people think all grass should be short, like a mown lawn, but this is a meadow area. It’s meant to represent a meadow, it’s not meant to be wall-to-wall cornflowers.
“It has grasses in it, rattle, buttercups, and clover. The council is creating wildflower areas of their own, but it doesn’t matter if you’ve got another 100 wildflower areas, you should not be destroying this one.”
Newcastle City Council said it agreed to a course of action with John that will allow the wildflowers to grow back – while ensuring it can carry out essential maintenance and “balance the needs of other residents”.
Mick Murphy, head of local services and waste management at Newcastle City Council, said: “We recognise the important role that wildflower areas play in encouraging increased biodiversity across the city. We do however need to balance different views and following a request from a local resident the wildflower area on Windsor Way, in Kingston Park, has been cut.
“We have been in touch with the gentleman who has been nurturing the area and we have agreed a course of action that will enable the wildflowers to grow back and ensure that we can carry out any necessary maintenance. We hope that this will enable the area to flourish in the future while also ensuring we balance the needs of other residents.”