Verges and grass cutting - transfer from Surrey

Elmbridge BC has taken over maintenance of roadside verges in the borough. This follows negotiations with Surrey County Council, in line with suggestions made in 2007 by then Elmbridge Lib Dem leader Graham Winton about how to make sense of fragmented services.

The transfer took longer than expected. The service was finally up and running in April 2009. It provides an increased cutting frequency. Elmbridge is still working to improve on the completeness of the service that it took over from Surrey.

If there are verges near you that are being neglected (or cut too often), let us know!

We are keen to see a high quality and efficient service for mowing the various patches of roadside grass in the borough that have frequently appeared neglected.  Before the service transfer took place, Cllr Miles Macleod put a question to the Leader of Elmbridge BC on this - see the panel below.

UPDATE JANUARY 2010 - Highway verge grass cutting.

Here is a progress update on highways verge cutting and tendering of a new contract:

On 1 April 2009 the Council formally assumed responsibility for cutting the grass verges from Surrey County Council (SCC) as part of an Agency agreement.

As a part of the transfer, it was agreed that the frequency of the cuts would be increased within the approved budgets transferred from SCC from 9 urban cuts and 2 rural flail cuts to an ideal frequency of 12 urban cuts and 3 rural cuts each year. This would return the frequency to that achieved when the Council previously operated this service under a Highways Agency Agreement for many years.

From the commencement date, Wyevale have carried out the urban cuts and Bill Kear have undertaken the rural flail cuts on behalf of the Council with close contract monitoring from the Leisure and Cultural Services Division. As a result of the improved contract monitoring regime and the increased frequency of the cutting, the appearance of the verges have attracted several compliments from both the community and Ward Councillors.

A key issue that arose during the negotiations with SCC was the lack of detailed contract documentation and contract maps that identify the location and extent of the highway verge grass. During the winter months each of the highway verges has been surveyed and digitally recorded by Officers working closely with the current contractors. Once completed the information will be transferred to the Council’s geographical information system (GIS) and used for contract supervision purposes. This exercise is due to be completed by the end of February 2010. The information will also be used to form the basis for the competitive tendering of the service with a new contract to be in place from 1 April 2011.

Some Ward Councillors have expressed the view that on landscape and\or ecological grounds some urban grass verges in their ward would be more suited to being cut under the rural grass verges cutting schedule. When Ward Councillors identify such areas, they should contact the Leisure and Cultural Services Division to enable this to be included in the upcoming tender documentation.

Question to the Leader

This is the minuted transcript of the 'Question to the Leader' asked by Cllr Miles Macleod at the 3 December 2008 Elmbridge Borough Council Meeting:

(f) Question asked by M. Macleod to the Leader of the Council, R.H. Taylor

‘With the welcome progress on taking over roadside verge maintenance from Surrey County Council, can the Leader tell us what is being done to coordinate the cutting of adjacent areas of grass which previously were mown separately by Surrey CC and Elmbridge BC, and how this will take into account the different mowing regimes needed for civic tidiness, wildlife conservation, and traffic safety?’

Response given by R.H. Taylor

Our first priority is to take back the part of the streetscene, the verge cutting and the grass cutting offered to us by Surrey County Council and there have been problems along the lines, a hurdle or two, and difficulties, and we are still hopeful although we are getting very close to the deadline of taking the service on the 1st January, 2009. Thereafter once we have it, you are quite right, we need to co-ordinate all our services so that grass is cut the same time with the same contractor and have some co-ordination. I rather assumed your question also included areas we don’t own like Elmbridge Housing Trust areas and that is on our agenda. We would like to discuss with them how we might do everything together, but our first priority is to get the service agreed and hopefully we will in the next few days, and thereafter we will be applying our minds to how we implement it in accordance with your aspirations.

Supplementary Question by M. Macleod

Does the Leader have a view of the possibility of the Council inviting greater local consultation on this matter so we can make best use of local knowledge and getting the right mowing regimes in place in specific areas?

Response given by R.H. Taylor

Yes, we will consult with all bodies to get the best result. I think we are all confident that when we get this service back it will be a substantial improvement.

Further Supplementary Question by J. Bartlett

Could the Leader also consider when we are talking about verge maintenance the importance of replacement of worn out grass after building operations, which at the moment are suffering in a number of areas of the Borough and more importantly the possibility of Elmbridge taking over the responsibility of Tree Preservation Orders in the verges.

Response given by R.H. Taylor

I understood that in respect of the replacement of worn out grass on the verges, I think we need to have a more in depth conversation with Mr. Parker, Head of Town Planning, about how we can co-ordinate that because certainly there have been instances where the County have decided to tarmac over pavements and we have lost our verges. On the issue of trees, that is rather trickier. Trees are a big problem and I can’t give you a definitive answer to what you would like. We are still talking about trees and how we might do that, whether we take some, none or part, if we take part it gets more difficult. A lot more discussions need to take place before I can give you a definitive answer on that.