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Grass cutting policy

Published: 17/04/2015

Changes to the County Council’s grass cutting policy will be discussed by Cabinet Members on Tuesday (21 April). The County has a legal responsibility to manage the Highway Network in terms of keeping routes available and safe for highway users. The revision to the policy is one of a number of measures being introduced as part of the Council’s challenge to make significant savings in the coming financial year. Under the revised policy, all current standards for urban grass verges will remain unchanged. In rural locations, the number of cuts at visibility splays will remain at four per year. The changes to the policy relate to rural verges, and are: - The number of cuts on rural verges at non visibility locations will be reduced from two cuts per year to one. (The timing of the cut will be dependent on the weather, but the target date will be June). All rural Principal, Non Principal and Unclassified roads will be cut to one swathe width, once a year, instead of twice a year. - In rural areas, a back to boundary cut on verges will be carried out for weed and self sown sapling control every four years instead of every three. There are also plans to market test all service provisions and procure the most cost effective service. The changes are expected to make savings of £75,000 a year. Councillor Bernie Attridge, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, said: “As part of the Scrutiny process, we have been working with County, town and community councillors to discuss the revisions to this policy, which were necessary as part of our challenge to find efficiencies across the Council. The final policy has been changed to reflect the recommendations that were made. As well as saving money, letting the grass grow longer is also excellent for bio-diversity, and means that the grasses and wildflowers are able to flower and set seed, building up a more varied seed bank in the soil.”