Grass cutting in residential areas to restart this week in Edinburgh

Grass cutting is set to restart in residential areas from this week, Edinburgh City Council have confirmed.

Due to social distancing, the maintenance of council-owned greenspace in the city had been left to grow as council workers focused on areas around parks and beauty spots.

However, this decision has led to overgrown areas in suburban area potentially leading to a backlog of work for when grass cutting resumes in full, Conservative councillor Jason Rust warned.

The council said it understood the frustration of those in residential areas but added it was following guidance to prioritise essential maintenance.

It also confirmed its grounds maintenance teams will be operational this week when further grass cutting is rolled out.

Cllr Jason Rust said: “The Council needs to follow the approach of other Scottish local authorities and ramp up the reinstatement of grass cutting to ensure more maintenance is undertaken to prevent irretrievable asset deterioration.

“If cutting cycles in residential areas such as Bonaly and Swanston keep being missed the scale and backlog of the works will be considerable and there shall be much future demand for additional resources which frankly are not there.

“The safety of staff and public is paramount, but there is no reason that socially distanced procedures cannot be put in place at a time when other councils and private golf courses are cutting and redeployment of staff should be considered where necessary.

“At a time when we are emerging from lockdown and people are largely at home and taking their daily exercise locally we need our amenity looked after and green spaces accessible."

A council spokesman said: “We resumed grass cutting in some of Edinburgh’s busiest parks and greenspaces from April – making sure that some of the popular outside areas are kept safe and tidy for residents to use responsibly.

“We of course appreciate frustration felt in residential areas, however the safety of our staff and the public has remained a priority and we were adhering to national guidance to carry out only essential grass cutting.

“Most grass cutting activity is squad based and involves staff sharing depots, vehicles and machinery. New health and safety measures have therefore had to be put in place, additional vehicles and PPE purchased. Our grounds maintenance teams will be operational from next week and further grass cutting will be rolled out from this time.”