Thursday, 26 September 2013

Council must urgently mow its grass, policy not working

“It’s disgusting that Auckland Council simply does not want to know about its long grass that is now widespread across the city,” says Auckland Councillor Cameron Brewer who publicly raised the matter at the Auckland Town Hall today.

Mr Brewer was ruled out of order for raising the growing issue, with chairman Mayor Len Brown threatening to throw him out of the council chamber today during the last meeting of the Governing Body for this term.

“The sad reality is the Mayor and majority of councillors don’t want to know about it. In fact they just laugh when people like me try to bring it up. All the while, council-owned grass keeps growing with some of it now shin-high while the rate-paying public gets angrier and angrier.

“Mowing council-owned lawns is surely core council business. Yet since 1 July, council contractors have stopped mowing berms, and also seemingly the likes of many pocket parks, road reserves, and grassed traffic islands across the isthmus.

“The long grass around Auckland is simply because a majority of councillors voted back in June to cut this council service while putting up rates another 10% for many households in the former Auckland City area.

“This was all about supposedly saving $3m per annum. However at the same time a majority of councillors signed off $30m being spent on a whitewater rafting facility in Manukau. So mowing council lawns is no longer core council business but whitewater rafting is. Go figure!”

“This is not necessarily about the wealthier areas as many of those streets remain tidy. The berms that are not being mowed are often outside multi-dwelling rented properties that don’t have a lawn mower, or outside the homes of the elderly and many others who for various reasons can’t mow council’s berms easily.”

“We’ve now got into the crazy situation where many residents are now being asked to produce medical certificates in an endless effort to try to convince Auckland Transport to mow its own lawns.

“Three months on, and with the onset of spring growth, the policy is clearly not working. The city looks scruffy and the Mayor and his supporting councillors can no longer bury their heads in the sand.

“Before it gets any worse, Auckland Council now needs to urgently instruct Auckland Transport to readjust its massive budget, stop fighting with ratepayers, and just mow its grass,” says Cameron Brewer.

Ends

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