The grass median is located along Cameron Rd in Tauranga. Photo / Luke Kirkness
The grass median is located along Cameron Rd in Tauranga. Photo / Luke Kirkness
If you've noticed areas of unmaintained grass growth in Tauranga recently, you're not alone.
Tauranga City Council director of spaces and places Paul Dunphy says there have been several complaints about some of the city's berms and verges in the fortnight leading up to February 25.
Dunphy said it wasnormal in periods of heavier thanusual grass growth and the council dealt with each complaint as quickly as possible.
An area of grass that has not been maintained is on Cameron Rd near the intersections of Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Ave, however it is not clear whether complaints have been made about this area.
A strip of unmowed grass along Cameron Rd in Tauranga's CBD. Photo / Luke Kirkness
Dunphy said maintenance was more difficult in some areas of the CBD with the likes of the Cameron Rd project in full swing.
Council staff would need to gain access to the construction site and there would be a knock-on impact on traffic, which was already being affected, Dunphy said.
"We have a duty of care to the people mowing the areas next to the roads to ensure their safety.
"This means we must carefully manage the traffic while we are doing the mowing, and this sometimes takes longer when working around large road improvement projects."
Council had received two complaints about Cameron Rd and approximately 20 regarding overgrown berm areas in other parts of the city.
An area of grass at the corner of Seventh Ave and Cameron Rd last week had places between posts and a tree that were left unattended following recent maintenance work. Dunphy said the staff had noticed this and rectified the situation.
Patches of grass around a tree and several posts was not mowed. Photo / Luke Kirkness
Dunphy said sometimes the council were also forced to "take responsibility" and maintain the berms of property owners who left them unattended. On the council website, it says the policy is to mow berms when they reach 300mm high.
Meanwhile, unmaintained berms in Tauranga prompted more than 100 complaints to the council in the past five years, the Bay of Plenty Times reported in August.
Information released to the Bay of Plenty Times under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act showed there were 110 complaints regarding berm maintenance between 2016 and 2020.
The complaints centred around a lack of action, inappropriate or unsatisfactory action, dissatisfaction with the ongoing service provided or with policies/procedures, and complaints about an individual contractor.
