PLANS to bring grass cutting services for Bridgend back in house have been approved by the local council this week.
The decision came at a monthly cabinet meeting on January 16, where members heard how the service for grass cutting in urban and rural areas had been operated by an outsourced private contractor since 2015.
However, with the current contract set to run out in March, both officers and members felt the service would be more cost-effective and flexible if brought back in house – to run alongside the service for grass cutting at parks which was still carried out by the council.
The report read: “A proposal has been made to return urban and rural grass cutting to an in-house provision after the current contract expires. A preference for an in-house service has been expressed by the cabinet member for communities in consideration of better control of the overall delivered service when considered in the context of other grass cutting operations that already occur in-house.”
While no costings were contained within the report, members at the meeting were told the current annual budget for the service would be around £200,000 per year, with officers now looking at the most cost-effective ways of running the service. They added that the local authority must take reasonable care for cutting the grass in the borough, particularly when it came to highways and verges.
Council bosses were also told that no job losses were expected as part of the move, though the new in-house service could open up opportunities for the hiring of seasonal staff during the summer months when the grass needed to be cut.
Councillor John Spanswick said: “It’s going to be one service cutting all the grass that needs to be cut. There’s many environmental gains that can be done by looking at what we cut.”
