Council consultation on Parks, Street Cleaning and Highway Verge Maintenance

[jimblob]

Why have a grass verge .

Personally, I think a well tended grass verge enhances the public realm; what would you propose in it's place?

[amazon]

How about a nominal reduction in people's council tax if they offer to maintain a grass verge outside of their own property against simple guidelines? I mow at least fortnightly the verge outside my own house and feed it at least once a year.

Why have a grass verge .

[jimblob]

How about a nominal reduction in people's council tax if they offer to maintain a grass verge outside of their own property against simple guidelines? I mow at least fortnightly the verge outside my own house and feed it at least once a year.

[admin]

I think some grass area should have wild flowers and spring bulbs planted, being cuts only once a year WITH THE GRASS CLIPPING REMOVES, so as to promote wild flowers like you get on hay meadow.   If the clipping are not removed, the wild flowers will not increase.

In parks etc, I think there should be wide “paths” cut every 14 days into the “wild” areas, so as to provide good access for walking etc.    Clearly some areas need to be cut so children can play ball games etc.

For road verges, the verge near junctions should be cut often so as to maintain good sight lines, with the rest of the verges being managed so as to promote wild flowers and spring bulbs.   Funding should be provided for resident groups to plant bulbs and wild flowers in the verges using the buying power of the cancel to get a very good deal.

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Cutter grass every 30 days instead of 14 will make it look a mess, but managing the land correctly to maximise wild flowers would give a better result and be cheaper.     However the once yearly cutting and removal of the cut grass would have to be contacted out to farmers, as it needs to be all done in a few weeks to fit in with the life cycle of the wild flowers.

There are some good ideas that may work in some areas there @ringi. Please make sure you complete the questionnaire to tell the council but also consider your response to proposals for reducing the frequency of street cleaning, reducing the number of Bowling Greens, removing litter bins from streets and parks, removing horticultural beds from parks, reducing time spend with voluntary groups, modifying play areas to reduce maintenance required and reducing maintenance of shrubs and hedges in parks.

[ringi]

I think some grass area should have wild flowers and spring bulbs planted, being cuts only once a year WITH THE GRASS CLIPPING REMOVES, so as to promote wild flowers like you get on hay meadow.   If the clipping are not removed, the wild flowers will not increase.

In parks etc, I think there should be wide “paths” cut every 14 days into the “wild” areas, so as to provide good access for walking etc.    Clearly some areas need to be cut so children can play ball games etc.

For road verges, the verge near junctions should be cut often so as to maintain good sight lines, with the rest of the verges being managed so as to promote wild flowers and spring bulbs.   Funding should be provided for resident groups to plant bulbs and wild flowers in the verges using the buying power of the cancel to get a very good deal.

----------------

Cutter grass every 30 days instead of 14 will make it look a mess, but managing the land correctly to maximise wild flowers would give a better result and be cheaper.     However the once yearly cutting and removal of the cut grass would have to be contacted out to farmers, as it needs to be all done in a few weeks to fit in with the life cycle of the wild flowers.

[admin]

Council consultation on Parks, Street Cleaning and Highway Verge Maintenance



Despite making significant cuts to park and green space budgets already over the last few years, Stockport council is now consulting on proposals to make even more budget savings on Maintenance of Parks, Street Cleaning and Highways Verge Maintenance.

The proposals include:

• Reducing the frequency of street cleaning
• converting lawned land to natural habitat
• reducing the number of Bowling Greens
• removing litter bins from streets and parks
• removing horticultural beds from parks
• reducing time spend with voluntary groups
• modifying play areas to reduce maintenance required
• Mowing grass in parks less frequently
• Reducing maintenance of shrubs and hedges in parks
• mowing grass verges less often

They acknowledge that this will result in a deterioration in the quality of the finish in parks and verges across the borough and are seeking comments from local people.

To have your say, visit this link:

https://consultation.stockport.gov.uk/policy-performance-and-reform/stockport-street-cleaning-park-and-highway-verge-m/

The consultation closes on 11 January 2019

For those with an appetite for more nitty-gritty details but don't want to plough through the 38 pages of the Strategic Commissioning Plan, here are some extracts from the consultation documents:

Draft Implementation Plan (Strategic Commissioning)

Stockport Council is consulting on more cuts to Street Cleaning, Parks and Highway Verge Maintenance budgets. These are part of further proposed cuts to many other council services but this particular consultation is regarding the Street Cleaning, Parks and Highway Verge maintenance only.  The outline proposals below are extracted from the council's Draft Implementation Plan (Strategic Commissioning) document and they are seeking your views on these:

Proposal

This review will consider how to minimise the impact of reducing the investment in these services. There will be a small number of efficiencies that can be achieved within these services but the overall impact of reducing the budgets will be to reduce the quality of the maintenance of the public realm. The broad and high-level scope and impact of reductions will be:

• Street cleaning – a reduced budget will mean that neighbourhood cleansing cycles will reduce. The reduction in cleansing is likely to focus on residential streets as maintaining standards of the town and district centres will remain a priority for the Council.

• Greenspace – a reduction in greenspace activity will result in a deterioration in the quality of the finish in parks and verges across the borough. It could also mean that an increase in the amount of land converted from lawned to natural habitat, a reduction in the number of bowling greens, litter bins across the park, removal of all horticultural beds etc. and reduced time spent with voluntary groups.

• Traffic and infrastructure – this could see a reduction in the number of bespoke traffic calming and parking measures introduced at a local level by reducing members discretionary budgets and the associated costs.

And from the actual on-line consultation document: Stockport Street Cleaning, Park and Highway Verge Maintenance Consultation

Within the on-line consultation itself the proposals are explained slightly differently and don't seem to cover any detail about Traffic and Infrastructure. So it appears that this particular consultation is actually just about the Street Cleaning and Greenspace aspects only:

Proposals

The proposals to achieve these savings are outlined below. It should be understood though that once the reduced teams are actually operating across the borough there would be a need to closely monitor, review and refine the working arrangements and continue to make adjustments to maximise the efficiency of the service. However the broad proposals are:

• Grass verges on highways would be mowed less often. There would be long grass apparent for longer periods of time across the entire highway network.
• The frequency of street cleansing rounds would be reduced.
• The number of litter bins would be reduced across the borough, both on the streets and possibly within parks. It is expected that the vast majority of people who currently dispose of their litter appropriately would continue to do so.
• Many smaller play areas will be modified over time to reduce the demand on maintenance costs by increased use of natural play equipment.
• Grass mowing in all greenspaces, except sports pitches and play areas, would be reduced. There would be longer grass for longer periods.  It is anticipated that several areas will become space for wild meadows.
• All aspects of park maintenance such as pruning shrubs, hedge cutting and sports pitch renovations would be reduced.