Grass cutting

We maintain around 9.5 million square metres of grass across the city. This includes highway verges, parks, wildlife meadows and other green spaces.

We only remove the grass cuttings from areas such a bowling greens and a very limited number of high maintenance lawns. In most places it is impractical for us to remove the cuttings so they are left on the ground. After the grass has been cut operatives with blowers clear any cuttings that have fallen onto nearby hard surfaces.

When do we mow?

Our mowing schedule is weather dependent and subject to change in the event of poor weather or ground conditions.

In very wet weather some areas can become waterlogged. To prevent damage to the grass and our mowing machines we avoid cutting these areas until they have dried out.

During prolonged dry weather grass growth is minimal so we suspend our mowing operations to avoid damaging the grass roots and soil.

If we are unable to mow an area, we will monitor it and resume cutting as soon as conditions allow.

To encourage wildlife selected grassed areas and the centre of some verges are cut once per year. Throughout the summer these areas provide food and shelter to beneficial insects such as bees, hoverflies, butterflies and many others. They are cut in August or September to encourage new growth in the following season.