Liverpool Council is to trim back its grass cutting programme by half in some areas as it moves towards a “less intense regime” of mowing.
A new strategy is being developed for the management of the city’s parks and greenspaces as the council seeks to address issues around climate change and biodiversity. The local authority declared a climate emergency in 2019 and a new report has outlined how its current approach to grounds maintenance “needs to change citywide to adapt to meet these challenges."
While the current maintenance of football pitches, cricket wickets and bowling greens will not change, generally amenity grassland currently cut through a 16-21 day cycle could be stripped back by 50% in some areas or reduced to a picture frame only like approach whereby the outer edges of a grassed area are cut on a 21 -28 day cycle with the central area allowed to grow to its natural limit.
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Those areas not cut cyclically will still have annual cuts, for example main central reservations where it is estimated the majority to be picture framing sites. The document said the shift in pattern would bring about a number of environmental benefits including improved carbon capture, positive impact on flooding and greater biodiversity.
Chris Lomas, Liverpool Council director of environmental services, told a meeting of the city’s climate change and environment select committee how he did not expect perfection straight away from the new approach. He said: “We won’t get it all right in year one, but we’re not going to go backwards.”
Challenges such as litter issues and longer vegetation that could cause obstruction or hide potential hazards were raised in the document but Mr Lomas said the council needed to make a change. He said: “The time is right.
“Others will not have a positive view, there will be some who want their verge to look like a cricket field all year round. We need to move towards a less intense regime of mowing across the city.
“Now is the time and it is the right direction for us to travel environmentally. It’s not that the council just doesn’t care.”
Mr Lomas said the strategy would involve “careful management” and work to meet the needs of local sites, adding the new approach “won’t do anything to compromise safety.” Options such as extending the focus to take in playing fields were dismissed, such as the to simply picture frame each site and have no other options.
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