Council to cut services for public open spaces

A SCOTTISH council is set to rip shrubs out of local amenity areas, withdraw “goodwill” maintenance of land the authority does not own and turn large areas of open green space into woodland in a bid to save £166,000 a year on its ground maintenance services.

The controversial changes are being recommended by officials in a report to go before next Wednesday’s meeting of Perth and Kinross Council’s environment committee.

Jim Valentine, the council’s depute environment director, is also recommending that, as part of the package of rationalisation measures, the council should reduce maintenance to countryside paths that the authority does not own and dramatically cut the visits by maintenance crews to cemeteries which are no longer used for burials.

He states in his report to the committee that there are currently some 400 sites which the council maintains but does not own.

He continues: “Many of these are legitimate public open spaces where historically titles have never been transferred, or in some cases the leases have lapsed. Of these, however, approximately 150 sites have been identified for further investigation as being debatable in terms of value as public open space.”