COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF RATHFARNHAM/TEMPLEOGUE-TERENURE AREA COMMITTEE

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

MOTION NO. 6

MOTION: Councillor D. O'Donovan

"That the Chief Executive outlines how many complaints were received regarding grass cutting within the RTT area over the past three months and further details what changes are to be made next year to avoid the same situation."

REPORT:

"The Council's customer contact system has been examined for the period June 1st to August 31st with regard to recorded complaints relating to the Council's grass cutting operation.  A total of 463 grass cutting complaints across the entire county are logged on the system for the period in question.  In June a total of 280 complaints were received with 97 of these relating to the RTT area, in July a total of 108 complaints were received with 28 of these in the RTT area and in August a total of 75 were received with 9 of these in the RTT area.  The vast majority of complaints related to one of two main issues, either the spread of grass cuttings onto adjoining roads and footpaths or the omission of specific areas of open space from the fortnightly grass cutting schedule.  The number of complaints received for the RTT area reduced from 97 in June to 28 in July and then 9 in August which indicates that the standard of grass cutting improved as the summer progressed.  A number of additional staff have been assigned to grass cutting in the RTT area over the past 6 to 8 weeks and this has led to an improved adherence to the schedule and an improvement in the standard achieved.  It is proposed that these additional staff resources will continue to be assigned to grass cutting for the remainder of 2016 and will again be assigned to this work in 2017. 

An instruction was issued to staff in early July regarding the need to keep paths and roads free from grass cuttings and in the event that such spread does happen then action is required to be taken to remedy the situation.  This matter is being monitored by the public realm supervisors and it is felt that there has been a general improvement in this regard following the instruction having been issued.

It is clear that adherence to the fortnightly cutting frequency is key to achieving a good standard of grass cutting. It is also clear that the majority of problems and complaints tend to arise in the early part of the cutting season and in general tend to be resolved within a period of weeks, as indicated by the reducing number of complaints.  It is proposed that a detailed analysis of complaints received in 2016 will be carried out and this should assist in identifying any recurring problems that there are.  It should be noted that when analysing the number of complaints it was found that a number of complaints were at times received about the same issue and these have all been counted as individual complaints.  It is also worth pointing out that the Council received repeat contacts about certain issues over a period of time and these have also been counted individually.  It is proposed that those recurring problems will be more closely monitored by supervisory staff in the coming year and that additional resources will be assigned to address them as early in the year as possible."