Gardening Services & Standards
Grounds Maintenance teams
Our Grounds Maintenance teams provide grass cutting, hedge cutting and shrub pruning services which change throughout the year.
Our grass cutting service operates during the spring and summer months and stops for the autumn and winter.
Our grounds teams will be spend time within areas cutting back shrub beds and other essential maintenance in order to improve their appearance. This will take longer in some areas than others which mean you will not see grounds colleagues in some areas on a regular basis.
Gardening services and standards
Our customer promise to you is to deliver the following in your communal areas.
We will:
- Collect litter and rubbish from grassed areas, cut grass, trim hedges, sweep or blow grass cuttings off pathways and other hard surfaces by visiting them up to 20 times a year – these works may not take place on every visit due to weather conditions.
- Spot spray weeds in beds or remove at least twice a year.
- Spot spray weeds/moss on hard surfaces when required.
- Trim growth that is encroaching other areas, shrubs, hedges etc. when required.
- Remove growth from tree bases if needed for the health of that tree.
- Prune shrubs, turn over soil and remove weeds from shrub beds when required.
- Keep hardstanding areas including foothpaths, drying areas and garage sites clear of weeds and overgrowth. through spraying and a 3 year clearance programme.
- Undertake projects within your neighbourhoods to increase bio-diversity and the appearance of your open spaces – these could include wildflower meadows, bulb planting, eco friendly bug hotels, new tree planting and natural meadows where we leave open space areas uncut to encourage the return of native species.
- Undertake tree works on a rolling 4 year programme to any tree that is identified as dead, diseased, dying or a structural hazard. No other works will be completed on trees.
- Undertake treatment of invasive weeds as necessary to an agreed annual programme.
Schedules are subject to change during bad weather.
When we visit your area
We are scheduled to visit each location up to 20 times a year, subject to bank holidays and other events which may impact on access such as weather, anti-social behaviour against colleagues, excessive dog fouling and other contractors being on site.
Gardening services frequently asked questions
We have listened to the questions that customers commonly ask us about their gardening service and produced this set of ‘frequently asked questions’, to give you information that matters to you.
Your service will never be missed, it will be picked up during the course of the week as we make up for the bank holiday.
Please report this to our Service Centre on 0161 393 7117 and we will get a team there when they are next in the area. If it is a health and safety issue, please report it as soon as possible.
We don't collect grass cuttings but they will be blown away from your property and footpaths will be swept clear of any grass after every cut.
Removing the grass cuttings would mean the current cost of grass cutting would go up significantly and your service charge may increase. This is because:
- We would need more equipment and labour to collect the cuttings and the scheduled cutting rota of ten days would also increase.
- We would incur high costs to dispose of the cuttings at landfill sites.
We are trying to adopt more sustainable ways of working where we can and by delivering a grass cutting service only, the advantages are:
- Grass clippings release beneficial nutrients into the growing grass
- We don't increase our carbon footprint further by creating more waste and using more fuel.
Your views matter
To report an issue or give us feedback call 0161 393 7117 or email servicecentre@fcho.co.uk.