Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1 - Wallasey Town Hall

Contact: Patrick Sebastian  0151 691 8424

Items
No. Item

10.

Members' Code of Conduct - Declarations of Interest / Party Whip

Members are asked to consider whether they have any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

 

Members are reminded that they should also declare whether they are subject to a party whip in connection with any item(s) to be considered and, if so, to declare it and state the nature of the whipping arrangement.

Minutes:

Members were asked to consider whether they had any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any items on the agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

 

Members were reminded that they should also declare whether they were subject to a party whip in connection with any items to be considered and, if so, to declare it and state the nature of the whipping arrangement.

 

No such declarations were made.

11.

grass cutting and weed clearance programme pdf icon PDF 110 KB

The meeting has been convened further to a requisition submitted in accordance with Standing Order 26(2) by Councillors Bruce Berry, Andrew Hodson and Adam Sykes “to discuss the Council’s problems with the grass cutting and weed clearance programme resulting in areas of our Borough resembling uncared for and derelict wasteland”.  A report presenting initial information on weed control and the mowing of highway verges is attached.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Following receipt of a requisition for a special meeting of the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee from three members of the Conservative Group, ‘to discuss the Council’s problems with the grass cutting and weed clearance programme resulting in areas of our Borough resembling uncared for and derelict wasteland’, a special meeting was arranged, following consultation with the Chair and Party spokespersons. A summary report had been prepared that provided initial information on weed control and the mowing of highway verges to assist Members of the Committee in their consideration of issues, as follows:

 

Weed control:

“A new contract for hard surface highway weed control started in May 2018.  Both Spot and Schedule Monitoring are in place.  The contractor is working to a schedule and reports progress each day using a table template. This information is going to be placed on the council’s website grass cutting and grounds maintenance page so that members of the public can identify where the contractor has got to.  The glyphosate herbicide leads to signs of weed dying ten to fourteen days after application.  If an area is missed, or the spray applied has not taken due to rain, the contractor is required to re-treat the area.

 

“There were some initial mobilisation issues which are being resolved through Contract Mobilisation/Monitoring meetings. The Terms of the Contract are that the contractor will not be paid for phase one (the May/June round) until after end of June and this is dependent on evidence of phase one (May/June) being satisfactorily completed, with evidence of weed death 10/14 days after application.

 

“Unfortunately due to very wet ground conditions in April and early May spraying was delayed whilst weeds grew strongly.

 

Mowing of highway verges:

“The grass cutting of highway verges is currently scheduled to take place as follows:

 

“Urban verges are cut every three weeks from mid-March to October, except during May to June when the cut occurs every four weeks due to work load from extra growth. The longer period between cuts in May and June is a reflection of the extra time it takes to complete the ‘round’ at this time of year, due to the fast grass growth at that time of the year. A small number of urban verge areas are cut four times a year.

 

“Rural verges are cut once a year (mid-July to mid-August, subject to flowering conditions and weather conditions.  Semi-rural verges and rural verges at road junctions and along established rural road pedestrian pathways are cut four times a year between March and October, to keep view lines clear and enable the paths to be used”.

 

The Chair invited signatories to the requisitioning of the meeting - Councillors Adam Sykes, Bruce Berry and Andrew Hodson - to summarise their concerns.

 

Councillor Sykes informed that he had been in approached by many residents regarding the state of verges and roadside weeds, and provided an anecdotal example of a location where delivery drivers were unable to see road signage. He asked for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.