Residents have taken to social media to voice their concerns about overgrown foliage and ‘chest high grass’ in green spaces across Penarth, Barry, and the wider Vale area.
Now, the Vale of Glamorgan Council has addressed these concerns on social media.
Ultimately, the reason for uncut grass boils down to a mixture of delays from contractors and grass growing faster thanks to recent warm weather, making it difficult to keep up with.
Crews have worked throughout this recent hot weather, but staffing challenges have made it a little more difficult to keep to the usual grass cutting schedule that the Council adhere to.
A social media post from the Vale of Glamorgan Council said: “The recent weather has meant grass has been growing faster than normal, but we’ve also experienced delays with our contractor’s grass-cutting programme
“While crews have continued working throughout the recent hot weather, staffing challenges have meant some areas haven’t been cut to our usual schedule.
“The areas most residents are reporting, such as roadside verges and other green spaces, are normally cut on an 18-working day cycle. These are the locations where we’re currently behind schedule.”
Residents have raised concerns on social media about these roadside verges, claiming that long grass has become a ‘safety hazard’ for those driving as they simply cannot see where other drivers are indicating and travelling.
Others have simply said that green spaces around Barry look “scruffy and unkept” thanks to the uncut foliage and overgrown pathways that are “getting narrower by the day.”
Others on social media sit on the opposite end of the spectrum, with one commentor saying how they “prefer taller grass and wildflowers – it’s how nature’s supposed to be.”
The previously mentioned 18-day schedule does not affect feature parks and recreation grounds across the Vale, which continue to be maintained by the Council’s own teams and are cut “every 10 working days.”
The post continued: “Additional resources have now been brought in and the next round of cutting will begin towards the end of next week.
“We’re working closely with the contractor to reduce the backlog and get grass cutting back to the standard residents expect- thank you for your patience while we get things back on track.”
Those with an area of concern that they would like to make the Council aware of can report it through their official online reporting channel on the Vale of Glamorgan Council website.
