COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, July 12, 2021

QUESTION NO. 3

QUESTION: Councillor T. Costello

To ask the Chief Executive what approach is taken to access plan cut and maintain grassland areas under SDCC Ownership in the county

REPLY:

The Council's Public Realm Section maintains approximately 1,750 hectares of grass across the County, all of these areas have been mapped and incorporated into a schedule management system which is used to provide grass cutting rosters on a weekly basis to the 6 operational depots.  The rosters provided are based on target grass cutting frequencies of fortnightly cutting for parks, open spaces and roadside margins and weekly cutting for playing pitches. Information on planned maintenance such as grasscutting can be found by map location at the following link http://www.sdublincoco.ie/Home/CleansingMap 

Included in the 1,750 total there is 139 hectares of grass being managed for biodiversity and these areas, mostly within the main parks, are cut once per year.  This involves the cutting and lifting of the grass cuttings from these areas to enable the natural seed bank to thrive, and this takes place either in autumn or spring. These managed grasslands are also mapped and work is underway to make this information available to the public through the Council website.   These sites have been marked out and identified with signage as areas that are being managed in this way.