Urgent council meeting called to discuss Wirral becoming a 'derelict wasteland'

A special meeting of the council’s environment overview and scrutiny committee will take place next week to discuss “problems” with grass cutting and weed clearance programmes used by the local authority.

It comes after a request for the meeting by three members of the Conservative group – Councillors Bruce Berry, Andrew Hodson and Adam Sykes.

The council said staff were now working at “full stretch” under “extremely challenging circumstances” after a winter of poor weather meant setbacks and lost time.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Councillor Berry, whose ward is Moreton and Saughall Massie, said: “Grass verges around the borough are, frankly, a mess, while weed control on many roads and pavements appears to be non-existent.

“If you go back to late April, lots of residents have complained since then about the grass not having been cut in lots of areas. Some parts look so neglected.”

According to the report to be discussed by the committee on July 5, a new contract for hard surface highway weed control began last month, but there were “initial mobilisation issues”. The contractor will not be paid until the first phase of work for May and June has been “satisfactorily completed”, it continued.

The document also said that due to “very wet” ground conditions in April and early May, spraying was delayed while weeds “grew strongly”.

The contractor is using a “spot and schedule” monitoring service, and progress reports can be found online.

The report also said most urban grass verges are cut every three weeks from mid-March to October, except during May to June, when cuts occur every four weeks.

That’s because of the added work load from the extra growth, and more time being taken to complete the round.

Verges in rural areas are cut once a year, with those in “semi-rural” areas and at junctions along popular rural pedestrian pathways cut four times a year.

Cllr Berry said a lot of the weeds had “been missed” over the past few months.

He called for the issues with the contractor to be resolved, and for both the overgrown grass and weeds to be cleared.

He added: “There are lots of people travelling into Wirral at this time of year as we have got lots of events on, and weeds and poor management of grass verges don’t send a good signal out. We are trying to attract people into the area but that’s difficult when it’s looking untidy.”

Responding to the comments, a council spokesman said: “While we are currently enjoying particularly fine weather council staff are using this settled period of weather to make up for time lost earlier in the year when we had the Beast from the East, heavy snowfalls in March and above average rainfall throughout the winter, meaning verges couldn’t be cut without causing irreparable damage to them.”

He said the council took on a new contractor for weed spraying this year, and is working closely with them to bring standards to the “highest possible level”, while staff continue with other maintenance work.

He continued: “We are now mostly through our catch-up plan and are grateful to councillors who will no doubt be supporting staff as they work at full stretch to provide the best possible service to residents under extremely challenging circumstances, including budget cuts across council services.”