Residents are now unable to use the Right of Way between Beechwood Road and Essenden Road due to the complete lack of maintenance by the council. I was astonished to receive this reply bearing in mind this is an important access route for residents. Since the Council's bankruptcy the lack of maintenance in Sanderstead has left residents having to fend for themselves trying to maintain green spaces and verges. This is the response I received:
Due to the council's current financial position and budget cuts, we have had no choice but to alter the way in which grounds maintenance generally including grass cutting in Croydon is carried out and we are not able to offer the service that we have in the past. There has been a serious reduction in grass cutting staff across the borough (from 42 to 18) and we have neither sufficient men or machinery to carry out complete cuts. We have now also had staff seconded to Croydon Crematorium putting further pressure on what’s left of the staff on the ground.
Due to our predicament, we are for the short-term time concentrating on Parks and then Housing sites. We will then fall back and cut Highways verges as and when we can unless there is a sightline issue at a specific Highway junction.
Obviously as and when circumstances change, we will endeavour to go back to a more normalised grass cutting regime as soon as possible.
With regards to the footpath, in previous years it would have been cut back by now but again lack of staff has prevented this being carried out so far. I will pass this on to the Grounds Maintenance Operational Manager to look into this being cut back as soon as possible but I'm unable to give you a timescale at the moment.
