​Grass verge mowing funding redistributed across the Teviot

Funding previously used to mow grass verges in the Roxburgh township will be redistributed within the open spaces budget for the Teviot ward.

Prior to the Teviot Valley Community Board meeting on Thursday (4 April 2024) the Board asked Council staff to prepare a report regarding the continuation of mowing the grass verges in the Roxburgh township.

Commenting on the report, Central Otago District Council Group Manager – Community Experience David Scoones said it had been discovered that a few years back, a decision was made to regularly mow the town’s verges, even though this was not generally a function of councils around New Zealand because of the cost.

“Roxburgh is the only township within the district and the Teviot ward that has verges mowed other than verges that are adjacent to Council owned land. We have had an extensive search through the files, but the exact decision, and reasons for it cannot be found.”

The Central Otago District Council (CODC) has no allocation in the open spaces contract to undertake this work. The total open spaces contract budget for Teviot Valley is $159,000, and in the past three years, the Council had spent about $26,000 mowing verges that would normally be the responsibility of property owners.

“Given the financial pressures Council budgets are facing, there is potentially a significant saving for the Roxburgh ratepayer by not undertaking the mowing of verges,” Mr Scoones said.

In the report, CODC Parks and Recreation Manager Gordon Bailey said that staff had made spending priorities which had often seen the general mowing of grass take precedence over track, garden and tree maintenance operations in order to remain within budget. At the meeting, he said having more funding available for this work would be a good outcome for the entire ward.

It was decided a fairer, more equitable way would be to redistribute the grass verge budget across other costs centres within the open space contract, and that this change would be reflected in the Annual Plan and subsequent Long-term Plan. The Roxburgh Community would be notified of the decision.

A clear policy on verge mowing would be developed.