More grass-cutting crews have been sent out across Buckinghamshire’s road network, the council has said.

The update comes as safety concerns have been raised across the county due to long grass impeding drivers’ views at some junctions.

Cllr Steve Broadbent, the deputy leader and cabinet member for transport, said the council now had more people cutting grass.

He told Tuesday’s cabinet meeting: “The amount of sun we had, followed by lots of rain, saw strong growth on our verges.

“Recognising that, given the scale of the cuts and the new areas we are having to cut, that programme fell behind – we have been able to add more crews onto the county’s network.

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“Hopefully you will have seen them out and about to bring that grass-cutting programme back on track at this time of year. I just want everyone to know that we have additional crews achieving that for us.”

Local authorities are responsible for maintaining many aspects of the highways network, including grass cutting, although in some areas, these have been devolved to parish and town councils.

Bucks Council splits its grass-cutting responsibilities into ‘urban’ and ‘rural’ and began its programme in April.

The programme includes two urban cuts and three rural cuts, including ‘vision splay cuts’ to improve visibility for drivers.

Residents can tell the council about road junctions with poor visibility due to long grass by using the online ‘Fix My Street’ service.

The council says that where long grass compromises road safety, it is able to undertake ‘emergency’ reactive cuts.

Chalfont St Peter parish councillor Karen Dickson raised this issue during an online update to residents earlier this year.

In a statement, she wrote: “It looks as if the long grass verges may be cut where sight lines are badly affected within the next five days.

“Apparently, Fix My Street has been inundated with so many reports from Chalfont St Peter residents that an emergency order has been issued to make it a priority.”

Council leader Martin Tett previously said he had had a lot of correspondence with residents about grass-cutting.

He told last month’s cabinet meeting: “It is an issue that residents have raised with me. Some, very reasonably, have said that particularly in the urban areas, some of the grass, quite frankly, is very high and just makes areas look untidy.”

The leader pledged to try and get urban grass cuts done as quickly as possible and reminded people to tell the council about locations where people’s sight lines at junctions have been blocked by grass growth.

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