Park cutbacks will save Stoke-on-Trent City Council £110K
GRASS-CUTTING and litter-picking at public parks is to be scaled back as part of council cuts – with voluntary groups being asked to help offset the changes.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council wants to slash £110,000 from its budget for grass-cutting from April as part of £21 million savings.
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'An integral part of community life': Bakewell Street Park
The Sentinel reported in December how acres of public green space will be allowed to become 'wildlife meadow' under the latest cuts.
Now it has emerged that parks like Northwood, Cobridge and Etruria will be cut only once a month instead of every three weeks. Services like strimming and litter picking will also be reduced.
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The council said its major 'strategic parks' – including Central Forest Park, Burslem Park and Westport Park – will be unaffected.
But neighbourhood parks, fields and closed churchyards are all included, with residents encouraged to form 'friends of' groups which can bid for charitable support.
The authority will also refuse to cut grass on unadopted housing estates and business parks which it has been mowing as a 'goodwill gesture' for several years to help improve the city's appearance.
Councillor Andy Platt, cabinet member for green enterprises and clean city, said: "Rather than just leaving the land we will have a proper naturalisation programme – working with Staffordshire Wildlife Trust – which I think is very positive.
"We have been cutting grass that should not be our responsibility. In some cases we may be trespassing to cut their grass.
"There are sites where developers should be doing it because it is unadopted land and we've been doing it as a goodwill gesture.
"That is wrong. The people of this city should not be mowing developers' land.
"We've been maintaining grass at Trentham Lakes, for example. That's a case where it may have been nice when we had the money to do it but it's not the real world.
"Either they do it or they pay us to do it. It is their responsibility. There will be no more freeloading by developers."
Etruria Residents' Association, David Martin, aged 62, from Mere Side Close, who is also involved with Friends of Etruria Park, said: "If they do it once a month it will be fine, but any less than that and it will ruin it.
"The children won't be able to play football or cricket and they use it a lot. It's the only place they have got to go on that side of the village.
"For litter picking, perhaps the council could get community payback teams to do it."
Richard Talbot, aged 67, of Newcastle Lane, Penkhull – chairman of The Friends of Bakewell Street Park Trust, in Penkhull – said: "Knowing this council, I'm not surprised at what they are doing.
"Parks are an integral part of community life, without such, society suffers. And it is suffering."
19 Comments
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by Justsuppose
Friday, February 08 2013, 4:16PM
“Andy Platt says - "There will be no more freeloading by developers."
Really? So who is getting the £40-59m for the CBD? Isn't is Genr8, a developer?”
by fredthefrib
Monday, February 04 2013, 10:52PM
“"Save money all round and cut the deadwood councillors as well as the grass."”
by stevenweiss
Monday, February 04 2013, 10:49PM
“What silly political posturing by the council. They should be ashamed of making its electorate suffer in order to score points that will do it no good. What does the council actually spend its budget on? Roads? no, full of potholes, notorious for it in fact. Grass cutting..evidently not. Gritting? Sparsely by all accounts. Parking facilities? Not for the shopper..maybe their own staff. Public transport? Nah, sold off to private companies. Council housing? No, sold to the highest bidder. Stainless Steel sculptures? Yes..loads, lets have some more. Demolishing solid brick schools and replacing them with precast concrete barns? Yes..sounds a great investment. Moving the council offices from Hanley to Stoke then Back to Hanley again..? Yes, let's do it. Multi-million-pound spy camera network? Bring it on...Big Brother we like. What a bunch of no-hope wasters.”
by fredthefrib
Monday, February 04 2013, 8:10PM
“Save money all round and cut the deadwood coucillors as well as the grass.”
by stokepotter
Monday, February 04 2013, 7:05PM
“The amount saved here is little more than half they pay the Chief Executive. It will have a greater impact on the City than he has”
by Ribbo1974
Monday, February 04 2013, 7:01PM
“Get all these workshy benefit cheating scum of stoke on Trent do clean up these or ge there money stopped”
by nobbynextdoor
Monday, February 04 2013, 6:03PM
“I'm glad Westport Lake is going to get looked after this year.
Last couple of years they spent all that money on new paths and then left the weeds to grow 6 foot high surrounding them and you couldn't even see the lake from the canal towpath.
Don't even get me started on that boat thing where they sell coffee at £4 per cup and all the money paid for solar panels on the roof which can almost power the fridge on a sunny day and one day they may move the site fencing so we can park under there.
So if we still have the machines and the operators we save all the money on petrol eh? I know instead of having the machine operators drive back to the depot 4 times a day for toilet/tea breaks diesel fill etc. Why not get a mobile caravan/hut thing with all facilities set up in strategic positions to save fuel that way.
It's an old council idea from when I was a kid and when councils had workers which maintained the greenways and red ash paths and cut edges before private contractors and back handers came along and sucked all the money up into bottomless back pockets”
by alanjuk
Monday, February 04 2013, 5:48PM
“you can't possibly have members of the public cutting the grass it's to dangerous http://tinyurl.com/a87ffxk”
by spudder56
Monday, February 04 2013, 3:32PM
“by Ian533Monday, February 04 2013, 1:53PM
"The council want to save £110,000 a year tell them to phone or email me as I know how to save them £50m"
X2”
by Valeplace
Monday, February 04 2013, 2:17PM
“Every time I read about a crimalways ZERO PUNISHMENT, in other words "community service". There must be thousands of people already doing "community service" so why not get them to mow the grass etc etc??????????????????? Seems simple & straitforward to me but I,m forgetting, our dear leaders rarely keep anything simple & straitforward.”