“Huge cuts” to Southend’s grass cutting team

Residents have been noticing that areas of grass around Southend-on-Sea haven’t been cut this year and are becoming very overgrown.

Part of the reason is due to “huge cuts” from Southend Council to the team that manage the grass cutting program.

The grass cutting team were reduced by more than 50% from 12 to just 5 people, according to Southend Councillor Lydia Hyde, Cabinet Member for Climate, Environment and Waste.

The recent periods of warm, wet and sunny spring weather have also prompted very strong grass and vegetation growth.

There was also a collision which seriously injured two of the parks team, as well as damaging two of the lawn mower vehicles. This has also had an impact on the speed that the team has been able to complete a full round. Temporary cover has now been recruited to fill the two positions.

Southend Council say their grass cutting programme has been underway since early April and will continue until October, with grass verges “being cut on average every 35 days”.

The council added that the parks team continue to work closely with the highways team to ensure that sight lines are clear for drivers and pedestrians.

Councillor Lydia Hyde commented: “I’ve been focusing hard on finding a solution. I’ve found some short-term solutions to recover, but also have some longer term ideas to improve the general state of our verges and grassy areas.”