02 Jul 2024
Forget No Mow May, we’re now in July and the state of grass verges across the district leaves much to be desired.
When the district council was forced to make harsh decisions to balance its budget earlier this year, these included various items relating to parks and green spaces.
Cost-saving measures included reduced strimming (only every other cut), removing March cuts from the summer meadow regimes, reducing weed sprays from three to two per year, reduced maintenance of shrub beds from 12 to six visits per annum, and slashing hedge cutting from four to three cuts a year on all hedges.
Of these, the biggest savings came from the reduction in strimming, which saved £36,270 per year.
But the consequences of the cutbacks have been a marked deterioration in the upkeep of district green spaces, with verges overgrown and vegetation out of control.
Comments on Facebook page London Colney Past & Present reflected people’s feelings about the situation: “Dreadful! The state of the council grass areas is embarrassing”; “It’s an eyesore everywhere and looks awful”; “It’s disgusting how the verges and communal spaces are being neglected by the council”.
Emma Turnbull, leader of the Labour group of councillors on SADC said: “There’s been loads of speculation that the council has been secretly doing No Mow May. But as No Mow June becomes July, local residents are increasingly – and rightly – angry about the poor grass verge cutting service.
“We now know that the fault lies with the Liberal Democrat district council who insisted on cuts to the grass verge contract and didn’t confirm that their contractor was able to deliver a decent service for less money. They also didn’t tell residents what they were doing. Local residents are now paying the price for reckless financial cuts and our streets are looking a mess.”
Chris Traill, SADC’s strategic director, community and place delivery, suggested the changes were a positive move: “We have introduced a new grass cutting regime this year for highway verges with the aim of ensuring the verges are kept neat and tidy for the benefit of residents.
“Our grounds maintenance contractor will make roughly nine cuts a season with strimmers being used every other visit to cut edges and areas around obstacles. The grass around trees is no longer strimmed as this was causing damage to the bark.
“There have been some teething problems with the new way of working and we have already taken steps to deal with that. This has included extending the time to complete the cuts.
“We have also reminded the contractor of the need to clear cut grass from the surrounding paths and road gullies.
“Our monitoring officer makes site visits to inspect the work and respond to any concerns raised by residents.
“One major issue this year has been the high rainfall which has resulted in high growth rates.
“The weather can also cause delays as our contractor is unable to put machinery such as mowers on wet grass as this can cause damage.
“We have published details of the new regime on our website and residents are able to check when their road verges are scheduled to be cut. There are also details there of how to provide us with feedback.”
Residents unhappy with particular verges can report them at https://www.stalbans.gov.uk/highways-grass-cutting
