End mowing of road verges to create huge wildlife habitat, says UK study

Managing verges for nature would create combined area the size of London, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Edinburgh for wildflowers

Road verges covering 1.2% of Great Britain, an area the size of Dorset, could be used to grow wildflower meadows and create habitat for wildlife, a study says.

In a report outlining the scale of road verges in England, Scotland and Wales, researchers from the University of Exeter used Google Earth and Google Street View to estimate that verges account for about 1,000 sq miles (2,579 sq km) of the UK's land.