Councillors mow down Labour’s grass cutting plan
Cross-party support for less costly extension of seasonal staff contracts
Attempts to speed up progress on South Lanarkshire’s grass cutting backlog were last week blocked by councillors.
South Lanarkshire Council have admitted it could take 12 weeks to get round all the areas requiring cutting as a result of coronavirus restrictions and the resulting height of the grass.
Labour councillors had put forward plans to shift resources to the frontline and offer overtime to help clear the backlog but these weren’t supported by the other political groups.
Grounds maintenance was stopped by the council on March 24 following the Uk-wide coronavirus lockdown.
A limited service in cemeteries, golf courses, bowling greens and road verges was resumed on May 18 before moving onto schools, social care complexes, sheltered housing and play areas on June 29.
South Lanarkshire Council want to cut all the grass that needs it at least once before winter but were unable to say how long it would take to get back on schedule because of the additional stress on the mowers used to cut the grass which is waist-high in places.
The Labour group had wanted to see things speeded up following complaints from constituents but the SNP administration as well as the opposition Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups couldn’t support the plans, citing value for money and that it would only speed things up by around 10 days as reasons why.
Deputy leader of the Labour group, Councillor Gerry Convery (East Kilbride Central South) said: “Faced with a public health crisis, the council quite rightly prioritised its emergency response. People understood that grass cutting would be put back while other services took priority and they know that social distancing is slowing down work.
“The problem is that we are now several weeks into the lockdown exit strategy and scaling the grass cutting service back up is still taking too long. The problems caused by a lack of grounds maintenance are obvious to everyone.
“We know from our time in lockdown that having access to green space can make a positive difference to people’s wellbeing but for too many people across South Lanarkshire their green spaces are overgrown and inaccessible.
“To help restore the grounds service, Labour councillors proposed that the council get an agreement on using overtime to get grass cut and to do so as safely as possible. All councillors are receiving calls and emails from people frustrated with the time it is taking to cut grass.
“This is not just about the appearance of our communities, it is a quality of life issue for many people, especially those families who live in blocks of flats and who do not have private gardens.
“Unfortunately the other parties did not support extra spending on overtime and that will make it harder to deal with the length of the grass.
“What we have secured is a commitment from the council to develop options to accelerate work at flats and tenements and to extend the employment of the council’s seasonal workforce into the autumn, hopefully allowing for an additional cut and other maintenance works.
“We just wish the other parties on the council were as willing as we are to divert resources to the frontline now.”
A spokesperson for South Lanarkshire’s SNP administration said: “COVID-19 has placed huge pressure on services across the council and we have a duty to protect both our workforce and public money, particularly as we emerge from the pandemic.
“Every councillor would like our grass cutting service to return to pre-lockdown levels, however it is simply not possible at the moment.
“At best, Labour’s proposal would mean our grass cutting programme would be complete a few days earlier than planned whilst costing the council substantially.
“That does not represent effective governance, it is political grandstanding at a time of crisis.”
Liberal Democrat group leader Councillor Robert Brown (Rutherglen South) said: “The lack of grass cutting around homes has been a major concern to many local people, not just because the overgrown grass doesn’t look nice but because there is no place for young children to play.
“This is felt particularly hard in the communal grass around tenement flats where people have nowhere else to put out their washing.
“It’s important the council fixes the grass cutting problem but extra grass cutting eventually started last Monday following sustained pressure from the Liberal Democrats.
“In order to catch up on the backlog of grass cutting, we also backed the plan to hire more workers and extend the season which will achieve more than the costly overtime suggestion from Labour.
“It is also great if the council can offer some employment to more people in these difficult times.
“It would be totally irresponsible to waste public money on an expensive plan that won’t make much difference, just so it can claim to be doing something.”
Alex Allison (Clydesdale East), Conservative group leader, commented: “The Labour proposal does not give tax payers good value for money.
“Council funds have been stretched this year and their costly proposal to bring forward the grass cutting completion by a week or so could put further financial burdens in other areas of council services.
“What we (along with other group leaders) have agreed is to extend the contracts of the seasonal staff to get all grass areas back into their normal state before the start of the winter season at a lower cost than any other suggestion.”