Petition to re-instate previous levels of grass cutting is growing in support

The petition, hosted on the website change.org, is entitled “Petition to Request North Lanarkshire Council to Review The Decision to Remove Grounds Maintenance Service in the G71 area,” which includes Uddingston, Bellshill and Bothwell but concerns the area served by NLC, now has almost 400 signatures.

The petition, launched by Emma Conlon, reads in part: “Covid has created several mental health issues, and many continue to struggle, this removal of grounds maintenance is only making it worse and affects many areas within the G71 vicinity.”

Since landscaping services such as mowing of grassed verges were scaled back by the council as a budget measure, some residents have clubbed together to hire services at their own expense -and say they won’t pay council tax. Independent Cumbernauld East councillor Paddy Hogg has also stated he intends to raise the matter via motion at the next full council meeting.

The leader of the council, Jim Logue, meanwhile, has stated that given ongoing reductions in funding since 2007, now in excess of £300 million, cutting grass in privately owned housing areas was no longer possible. Councillor Logue blames these cuts on the SNP Government.

The online petition can be found at: https://www.change.org/p/north-lanarkshire-council-stop-the-removal-of-ground-maintenance.