The upkeep of private ground by Perth and Kinross Council was this week described as ”ludicrous”.
Alan Grant, convener of the environment committee, slammed the existing system, telling colleagues it should never have been approved.
There are around 400 sites the local authority does not own, yet maintains on a ”goodwill basis”. In an effort to save money, the council has decided to stop this work and will consult the landowners on whether they will maintain the ground themselves or stop it altogether.
Mr Grant said: ”If we do not do this, we will not make the savings we need to make. As to making people happy, you know as well as I do it is impossible in this context, but we have found a method of reducing outlays, particularly on private land.
”If I had been around and someone had said that they wanted the council to look after their land because they couldn’t be bothered any more, they would not have been allowed to do this.
”This is a ludicrous situation we have to deal with and it is not going to make everyone happy.”
The plans were welcomed by councillors on Wednesday, although several members had reservations about the cost of the changes, the level of consultation being carried out with communities and how the council would encourage landowners to take on more responsibility.
Keith McNamara, head of environmental and consumer services, informed councillors there were too many factors to be considered to allow them to come to any definite conclusions.
Undeterred, Councillor Ian Campbell continued to call for ”maximum community involvement”.
”The fact that we maintain areas of ground that do not belong to us should really have been tackled before now, and we should not be using taxpayers’ money to subsidise the ground maintenance of those that could well afford to do the job themselves,” he said.
”What we must ensure is that there is proper and meaningful consultation with local communities and interested parties. We do not want a repeat of the playpark fiasco, where it appeared that councillors and communities had little chance to put their views across.”
The sites that could be affected by the changes have been divided into categories council-wide sites that attract people from all over Perth and Kinross, neighbourhood sites that are seen as important within a specific district and local sites that are only used by people within a certain area.
Among the other proposals made by depute director (environment) Jim Valentine, 23 burial grounds that are full will only be visited once a year by council workers, while strimming will not take place around gravestones.
This caused some concern for Councillor Callum Gillies, who said: ”A lot of people go to these old burial grounds and it can be upsetting if they are overgrown. Surely these areas should be kept in a reasonable condition?”
He was advised there would be no regular cutting back of grass, which would be allowed to grow long. This was the most realistic answer, he said.
Photo by Flickr user SMercury98