IT’S all very well enthusing about how nice our neglected verges and hedgerows look (Letters, June 12), but the unpalatable fact is that in many places, highly toxic and carcinogenic bracken is spreading at an alarming rate, killing the hedges and smothering wild flowers – and harbouring ticks.

Ragwort is also making a comeback, and a small amount is fatal to livestock (and humans too) if eaten, with no antidote to the irreversible liver damage it causes.

For centuries the spread of these deadly weeds was prevented by twice-yearly hedge brushing, using cheap labour, and old-style roadmen who cut the verges with sickles. Even when higher wages made this prohibitive, machines were used, as well as Asulox spray which killed the bracken and docks until it was banned.

I have attached a photo of bracken engulfing a hedge.

This is a result of not cutting the verges and hedges.

It is simply a bracken hedge – no flowers, no hedgerow. Dead thorns, hazels, holly etc.

The bracken rhizomes kill the hedge roots, engulf foliage, spread under tarmac and to farmland causing poisoning to cattle and horses – that’s re-wilding!

Asulox (Asulam), if allowed, will destroy bracken, as will Soay sheep. We used to rid pastures of six- foot high bracken successfully.

W KERSWELL Church Stretton