COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, July 14, 2014

MOTION NO. 8

MOTION: Councillor W. Lavelle

That this Council acknowledges and compliments the work of SDCC staff in maintaining our public realm in the face of significant ongoing challenges and demands. However noting the overwhelming nature of the demands and need for more frequent grass-cutting of open spaces, playing pitches, verges, cemeteries, etc; as well as the demands of local residents seek value for their Local Property tax, this Council calls on the Chief Executive to revert to the pre-2008 position of retaining external grass-cutting contractors, for the remainder of this year's grass growing season, on a cost-efficient, seasonal basis only which in no way endangers current jobs , so as to supplement and support Council staff and to generally augment the Council's own grass-cutting capacity, including ensuring full cover for staff leave.

REPORT:

Prior to 2008 the Council’s Parks Section hired approximately 8 tractor mowers to assist with cutting of grass on roadsides and open spaces. This represented approximately 20% of the tractor mower fleet which was in operation at that time. In addition to over 30 tractor mowers the Council also operates 30 to 40 ride on mowers of varying sizes. When the output of all grass cutting equipment is accounted for it is estimated that the hired tractor mowers increased the capacity of the grass cutting operation at the time by around 15%. When the hire arrangements came to an end the frequency of grass cutting reduced and time between grass cuts increased, due to the reduction in grass cutting resources that were available.

A service plan for the variety of services provided by the public realm section including grass cutting was drawn up at the start of the year. This put grass cutting locations into 2 categories, open spaces and other areas which were to be cut fortnightly and playing pitches which were to be cut weekly. If the service levels and frequencies as set down in the service plan are achieved it is expected that this will deliver an acceptable standard of maintenance of grass in the County.

The service plan also identified the level of resources required to deliver the individual elements of it as the year progressed, however some aspects of this were not achieved as envisaged in the earlier part of the year. In the area of grass cutting this work programme got off to a late start due to the carry over of work from the 2013 arboricultural programme and staff being assigned to tree maintenance work for a longer period than had been envisaged. This resulted in grass cutting starting up from early to mid April whereas it had been planned to start much earlier in March. A combination of both warm and wet conditions during the month of May resulted in excessive grass growth for a period of time and this also affected grass cutting progress for a time. An intensive effort has been made during the month of June to bring grass maintenance up to an acceptable standard and it is felt that the ground lost in the earlier part of the year has now been made up to a large extent and that the grass cutting frequencies are now being achieved. This will be monitored closely over the remainder of the year.

The Council does not propose at this time to reintroduce grass cutting contractors. It is proposed to examine what efficiencies can be achieved from the grass cutting operation as it is currently, and in this regard a measure has recently been taken whereby mobile welfare units have been introduced for staff to take lunch and tea breaks at their work locations. This will remove the need to travel to and from the works depots for morning tea break and for lunch break. It is expected that this will increase the average number of hours spent cutting grass in the day. Achieving this will bring about a major improvement in achieving the target grass cutting frequencies. The productivity gained from this measure will be monitored and measured over the coming weeks.