Young people taking action

Could a group of school children convince a Scottish Government Agency (Transport Scotland) to make changes to their road verge management procedures, and create more space for nature? That’s exactly what Form 7 pupils at St Mary’s did on 28^th May.

Supported by school staff, A Greener Melrose (AGM) and Bright Green Nature, they have been working all year on an initiative aimed at rewilding road verges in the Scottish Borders. They learnt about road safety and researched how other local authorities approach road verge maintenance. AGM supported St Mary’s to contact people with this responsibility at Scottish Borders Council, Bear Scotland and Transport Scotland. Other youth and community groups were keen to be involved (Stow Disruptors, Beyond Earlston, St Peter’s Primary, Scottish Youth Parliament) and were invited to planning meetings.

St Mary’s requested a meeting with Bear Scotland and Transport Scotland and an online meeting was arranged for 28^th May.

The pupils prepared questions they wanted answered, practised their debating skills and designed beautiful posters.  As the meeting was to be online, they also practised using MS Teams for large meetings.

Nine St Mary’s pupils spoke in the meeting, confidently and eloquently presenting the work they have done and what they were hoping to achieve. The response from Bear and Transport Scotland was more positive than we had dared to hope: both parties assured us that biodiversity is already very much at the forefront of their planning, and they spent some time outlining what they are already doing to prioritise nature recovery. They praised the pupils for their work and for their positive activism, and asked to keep the conversation going. Best yet, they gave assurances that something positive would come from our initiative and that they would look at specific areas of the A68 and the Melrose bypass, with a view to diversifying and at least partially rewilding them – for example, the wide grass verges between Earlston and Ravenswood, and the roundabouts on the Melrose bypass.

We are delighted that the voices of young people seem to have been heard and look forward to seeing our verges becoming a little more wild over the coming months.  A follow up meeting with Bear Scotland and Transport Scotland is in the diary for September, and the young people fully intend to hold them to account!