Threats to NRVs
How you can help
Notifi ed Road
Notifi ed Road Verges need sensitive management,
Notifi ed Road Verges are some of the best
Verges
and are easily damaged, sometimes beyond
places in the county for wildfl owers and other
in Nottinghamshire
recovery, due to a variety of reasons:
wildlife. It is important to protect them, and
• Vehicles – driving over, parking on, or
you can help us do this:
damaging the ground surface. Such damage
• Become a Wayside Warden, and keep an
is often caused by large vehicles and farm
eye on your local NRV – contact us for
machinery on narrow lanes, where rutting
further details.
during wet weather is a particular issue.
• Inappropriate management - despite NRV
• Report any damage to NRVs to us.
status, some of the verges are occasionally
• Don’t leave garden clippings or other waste
mismanaged, being mown as extensions of
on verges or in hedges.
gardens.
• Road widening – one NRV was lost in
• Report any fl y-tipping to the Environment
2007 due to upgrading works on the M1 at
Agency on freephone 0800 80 70 60.
Markham Moor.
• Don’t park on or drive over NRVs.
• Inappropriate tree or bulb planting – reducing
the space available for wildfl owers.
• Don’t plant trees, bulbs or ornamental
• Tipping of waste - domestic, commercial and
plants in NRVs.
garden waste, including grass cuttings.
• Leave verge cutting to those authorised
• Road maintenance – the digging of ditches,
to do it.
trenches, drainage grips, and installation of
signs can damage verges, although systems
Contacting us
email
[email address]
are in place to avoid this as far as possible.
phone
0115 977 4557
• Road salt - salt spray from gritting which
post
Nature Conservation Unit, Trent Bridge House,
T/00208/5746
causes changes in verge vegetation.
Fox Road, West Bridgford,
Nottingham NG2 6BJ
internet
www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/nature_conservation
published March 2008
DP&P/03.08/COM/CUL
This information can be
made available upon
request in alternative
formats and languages.
Notifi ed Road Verges in Nottinghamshire
In addition to plants, roadside verges provide habitat
How NRVs are managed
for mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, and
The Notifi ed Road Verge (NRV) scheme is run by
invertebrates such as butterfl ies. They also serve
Previously, many verges were cut for hay, which
Nottinghamshire County Council, with the aim of
as a link between habitats that might otherwise be
maintained them as species-rich grasslands
managing some of our best verges in a sensitive
isolated, allowing species to migrate between areas
and kept scrub and
way, in order to maintain their value for wildlife, and
and colonise new sites.
coarse grasses in
particularly the wildfl owers that they hold.
check. This traditional
management
no longer occurs
(except in a very few
instances), resulting
Top left: Hoverfl y
in a decline in the
Bottom left:
botanical quality
Comma butterfl y
Centre:
of many verges due to a build up of thatch and
Orange Tip butterfl y
Above:
nutrients, which favours coarse and aggressive
Common Toad
The Notifi ed Road Verge scheme
plant species.
Nowadays, most road
The sites that have been selected as NRVs
verges are maintained
are some of the best remaining verges in
Facts and fi gures
by regular but infrequent
Nottinghamshire, either having a diverse
cutting, primarily for road
or representative botanical community,
• The Notifi ed Road
safety and amenity reasons.
Why verges are important
or holding plant species that are scarce
Verge (NRV) scheme
Cutting times are often
or rare in the county. This means that
has been run by
at odds with the wildlife
In many places, road verges are the last remnants of
they vary considerably in species content
Nottinghamshire
interest of verges, and
unimproved semi-natural grasslands in our otherwise
and size. The largest NRV extends to
County Council since
cuttings are rarely removed.
intensively farmed countryside. Although the
over 8000m2 and holds nearly 100 plant
1979.
botanical quality of many verges has declined over
However, the management
species, whilst the smallest covers just
the last few decades, with coarse grasses and tall
• There are currently 24
regime given to NRVs seeks
170m2 and holds fewer than 20 species
herbs such as nettle, thistles and hogweed becoming
NRVs in Nottinghamshire. Visit our
to replicate a traditional
(but amongst this number is a species
dominant in places, a number still retain important
website for further details.
hay meadow cut, with
found at only a handful of other sites in
grassland communities, whilst others hold scarce or
• All NRVs are marked by wooden
most verges being mown
the county). Overall, around 250 species
rare species that struggle to survive elsewhere.
fi nger posts at each end of the
in September, although
of plant have been recorded growing in
designated verge sections.
the SSSI verges at Eaton
Left:
NRVs.
Pyramidal Orchid.
& Gamston get one cut in
A rare species
• NRVs cover around 67,000m2
All NRVs are also designated as Sites of
late summer and another in
found in several
of verge.
NRVs
Importance for Nature Conservation, a
the autumn. In all cases, it
Right:
non-statutory county-level designation
• Three of the NRVs are also parts of
is important that the grass
Yellow Rattle.
Characteristic
which formally recognises their nature
Sites of Special Scientifi c Interest.
cuttings are removed, as
of unimproved
grasslands, this
conservation value. In addition, three
this favours less vigorous
• The fi rst 1.2m of verge next to the
plant is parasitic
NRVs are Sites of Special Scientifi c
wildfl owers and prevents
on grass.
road, and areas on bends and at
Interest, a national designation that
a build up of thatch and
junctions, are cut for safety reasons.
provides these sites with legal protection.
nutrients.
