After receiving strong criticism on social media pages and through service requests, Ōpōtiki District Council staff asked councillors for guidance as to whether they should be mowing berms in the town.
Efforts to uncover a long-buried footpath outside Ōpōtiki College led to council staff being abused. Photo: LDR
A report was tabled by planning and regulatory manager Gerard McCormack at last week's council meeting, asking councillors to choose from three options - maintain the current level of service, change the priorities of the current seven staff employed by the department or to increase the level of service.
Chief executive Aileen Lawrie told the mayor and councillors that staff were dealing with a lot of flak coming through service requests.
"They're telling us that they're getting some quite abusive service requests for things that aren't actually funded or part of our level of service. So today is just about reasserting what our level of service is so that we can defend those criticisms."
This comes after a storm of criticism of council hit social media pages about the section of footpath on Bridge Street that runs beside the Ōpōtiki College field. The footpath was almost completely buried by grass and was unusable for people with pushchairs or those with mobility issues.
A working bee by local people, including several businesses, was held in early May to uncover the footpath.
McCormack's report said the council's parks and reserves team was responsible for a range of activities that included tree maintenance, mowing, planting, litter picking, spraying, cleaning drains and landscaping around council buildings and cemeteries.
"Given the large size of the district and the small size of the team, the team has always had to prioritise where the time is spent.
"Edging and mowing of pavements outside private properties could be prioritised, but this would mean that something that is currently delivered would no longer be able to be delivered in the same way.
"In order to increase the level of service, additional resource will be required … this is likely to require additional staff and additional machinery. Additional costs would need to be covered through a rating increase or through cuts in other areas."
Lyn Riesterer Photo: Facebook
Mayor Lyn Riesterer said she understood that groups and organisations were supposed to mow their own berms and that council was not responsible for mowing all berms everywhere throughout the district.
"I know at the time that I was at Ōpōtiki College the groundsman did outside, always."
Lawrie said it was a nationwide convention that landowners took care of the berms outside their properties though all councils had occasional issues with people who refused to do so.
Councillor David Moore said just maintaining the status quo was costing more and more.
"We can't keep increasing levels, we already struggle to keep the rates as they are."
Councillors voted to maintain the current level of services and said they would consider whether they wanted staff to put together a report about how levels of service could be improved and what that would look like in terms of costs.
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