A petition requesting that Galway City Council leave the green areas unmowed has been launched by Green Party Chairperson, Claire Hillery. The petition points out that during the pandemic, most council parks and grass verges have been allowed to grow wild and that, contrary to the belief that ‘neat and green is nice’, these wild parks and verges are far more beautiful with pinks, blues, yellows, whites and purples. The petition was launched last week and within 48 hours, more than 300 people had signed it, with names continuing to be added.
“Galway City Council launched their ‘Local Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business’ on Saturday May 16; this roadmap includes that access to every park in Galway City will be ‘Restricted subject to grass cutting’ from the 18th May. It also states that cutting of grass verges will is ‘To commence approx third week of Phase 1,” said Ms Hillery.
“This means that all these exquisite flowers, that not only look beautiful, but are wonderful additions to help preserve our natural world, will all be cut back so that we end up with short grass, that likely will be a greenish-yellow colour due to lack of rain.
“Ironically, cutting is due to start to the very week that the International Day for Biodiversity is being held on May 22. And we all know that cutting these green areas can only negatively affect biodiversity, removing food and homes for our already declining insect and bird populations,” she added.
The petition is running at https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/say-no-to-the-mow, or if you would like to get in touch with Claire Hillery, you can contact her on [email protected].
