Grassed-off Northland residents won't mow outsize berm

Bruce Sowry and Hilary Edmunds say the berm is much larger than usual. Photo / NZME.

The roadside berm outside the immaculately kept homes of Northland neighbours Hilary Edmunds and Bruce Sowry is 21m wide, 45m long and several times the size of their combined lawns.

The area - half the size of a rugby field - could soon look like a wasteland as the two Onerahi neighbours are now following Whangarei District Council's lead and refusing to mow it. "It will break my heart but we have a stand to make," Mrs Edmunds said of the decision to stop keeping the berm mowed.

"I've taken care of berms outside my own homes all my life but this is many times bigger than the usual berm. It's the size of a council reserve and it shouldn't be our responsibility."

Council roading manager Jeff Devine said there were no exceptions to the policy that property owners were responsible for the grass strips between their homes and the road.

Two years ago, Mr Devine said the only time the council would mow the sweep of land in question was if the grass grew so high it became a traffic or fire hazard.

Mrs Edmunds has raised the issue with council staff and elected members several times in the past three years but continued to keep the big berm tidy. More recently she appealed to Whangarei Mayor Sheryl Mai, who wrote in December confirming the no-exceptions policy.

Mr Sowry has done the mowing in the past and Mrs Edmunds paid for the petrol but he has a health problem that means he can't mow any more.

Mrs Edmunds pays for her own lawns to be cut and cannot afford the quoted $80 a fortnight for the berm, which fills two wool sacks of clippings, too much for their composts.

"It's not really a berm. It's beyond reason to expect us to mow that amount," Mr Sowry said. "There should be an understanding over a certain size."

Every few weeks council contractors use two large mowers to cut a reserve across the road, leaving the neighbours wondering why they can't whip across and do the berm.