More men – and women – sent to mow…

Plymouth City Council have deployed cutting crews around the city so that tall grass can be cut after a month of warm weather and plenty of rain has left the city’s verges and parks looking particularly luscious.

In just two days, the Street Cleansing and Grounds team received over 80 calls asking for grass to be cut in all our neighbourhoods. There were also comments and requests on the Council’s social media sites and to councillors.

Cabinet Member for Street Scene and Enviroment Councillor Michael Leaves said: “We are listening to what our residents want. We have over six million square metres of grass that need to be cut, but clearly the last month has seen a pretty big growth spurt.

“How neighbourhoods look is important to our residents so we are reallocating our teams in areas to where there has been the most rapid growth. We’ve also put some of our gardeners onto the grass cutting teams to help them catch up. This is not costing us any more money, we are just moving our teams around on a temporary basis to deal with an issue residents feel strongly about.”

There are five grass cutting teams and all estates are cut nine times a year.

From Wednesday this week gardening teams normally on the Hoe and the Waterfront have been supporting colleagues in the Derriford and Plympton areas to help them tackle the overgrowth.

Councillor Leaves added: “It’s been a bit of a juggling act. We can’t always win – one person phoned up to complain we cut the grass too short…”