SPORTS pitches and open spaces in Argyll and Bute could breach health and safety rules if the area's councillors accept a proposal to reduce grass-cutting services, a report has warned.
A proposal to consider alternative arrangements for grass-cutting services on Argyll and Bute Council land is among those being considered as part of the authority’s budget plans for 2021-22.
And in a detailed report, a council executive director has said that open spaces may breach health and safety regulations if they are not properly maintained.
Four full-time posts are under scrutiny as part of the savings option, which it is claimed would save the authority £100,000 per year.
The council will decide its budget for the next financial year at a virtual meeting on Thursday, February 25.
Executive director Kirsty Flanagan said in her report: “This saving will have a significant implication in that the already reduced grass-cutting frequencies will be reduced further.
“In some locations this will include not cutting grass and allowing areas to grow wild, but for the majority of locations, such as front greens, cemeteries, playing fields etc, it will mean a reduced level in service/fewer cuts per year than are currently carried out.
“This savings proposal will reduce resilience in the area teams through a reduction in staffing.
“This service, if reduced, will affect the useability of pitches and amenity areas and increased risk of dog fouling and littering.
“There is potential that our pitches may not be acceptable if industry standards are not maintained. Additionally we may lose pitch fee income.
“It will adversely affect the appearance and impressions of our towns and villages. Our open spaces can become dangerous and at risk of breach of health and safety if not adequately maintained.
“A further implication of this saving would be a reduction in local resilience through reducing full-time equivalent posts.
“Staff within the operations team get involved in a range of activities and functions, with operatives who are employed to cut grass regularly being called on to assist with bin collections, burying the dead, road works etc.”
Ms Flanagan also offered analysis of a proposal to reduce administrative support to the council’s amenity services department.
That savings option would see the removal of two full-time posts, and a saving of £20,000 over 2021/22 increasing to £50,000 in future years.
Ms Flanagan said: “The reduction in staffing levels would largely be compensated through the increased use of more sophisticated systems that effectively further automate parts of work streams that were previously more manually intense.
“This saving is not anticipated to have any impact on correspondence handling/dealing with complaints from the public and members. Correspondence handling is now dealt with in the main by a central team.
“Response times for some tasks may increase because volume of tasks will not decrease. Order requests, processing of work orders, invoices, general works may take longer.
"Front line staff will have reduced back office support.”
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