Wednesday, 2 October 2013

Long grass much worse than first thought

“The long grass around Auckland is not just limited to suburban berms. Auckland Council and Auckland Transport have also stopped mowing many pocket parks, road reserves, and grassed traffic islands,” says Auckland Councillor for Orakei, Cameron Brewer.

Mr Brewer today released two photographs as current examples to highlight his point – one showing very long grass immediately out the front of Point Chevalier Library and the other showing knee-high grass along a kilometre-strip at the back of the Ellerslie Racecourse. Both areas have clearly not been mown for months.

He has reported these and encourages others to ring the council and Auckland Transport on (09) 301-0101 to report long grass in such areas.

“It’s also becoming clear that Auckland Transport is not delivering on its policy promises such as mowing berms that aren’t directly accessible to properties, on steeper gradients, and in front of unoccupied properties. In many cases that simply doesn’t seem to be happening.

“This is not about the little berms outside the posh homes in the flash streets. Most of them remain nicely mown. This is mostly about road reserves with no residential guardianship, the elderly, those on low-incomes, recent migrants, and tenants who in many cases are just not in a position to start maintaining the council’s berms. It’s insulting that our elderly and unwell are being asked to produce medical certificates.

“This is nothing less than a service cut when at the same time many in the Auckland City area have had rates increases of 30 percent over the last three years under this Len Brown council.

“To think this council is trying to save $3m a year by cutting this long-held service when at the same time it’s borrowing $3m a day shows it’s the Mayor who needs to get his priorities right, not Auckland’s poor old ratepayers. The Mayor needs to start focusing on core council business and delivering ratepayers key services at good value for money.

“Axing this long-held council service and allowing contractors to ignore pocket parks and road reserves is not working. The Mayor can’t bury his head in the long grass any longer. The central suburbs look increasingly scruffy and let’s not forget they are Auckland’s shop window,” says Cameron Brewer.

Ends

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