Councillor calls for tough action on untidy gardens

Published 24 Aug 2010 14:42 6 Comments

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A CENTRAL Fife councillor is calling for a more robust approach to dealing with tenants who will not keep their gardens clean and tidy.

Labour leader Alex Rowley (pictured) claims too many people are refusing to keep their garden in an acceptable state and that it was costing the Fife Council money to have the gardens cleaned up when neighbours "rightly complain".

The Lochs councillor said, "I have written to the head of housing highlighting a case where the council has paid to have a garden cut three times in the last year.

"On each occasion the procedure has meant three separate letters being sent over a period of two months and when these are ignored the council pay a firm to do the garden.

"In this particular case this happened on three occasions so nine letters ignored, visits to the tenant ignored and then the garden cut and paid for at the council expense three times and the invoices have simply been ignored.

"This is simply no longer acceptable. I am being advised that no court will support an eviction for not doing a garden so I am now suggesting that any tenant who will not do their garden and who is able to do so should be removed from the property and re-housed into flats with no gardens.

"Fife Council should take the necessary legal action and gain the support of the courts to remove people from houses with gardens when they are in breach of their tenancy agreement by refusing to keep the garden in an acceptable state".

Mr Rowley said the case he is highlighting is not an isolated case and he has asked the head of Housing to provide him with the numbers of tenants that have had their gardens cut in Fife in the current year paid for by the council after failing to act on such a request from the council. He said, "I regularly receive complaints about overgrown gardens and gardens full of rubbish and I have to say I have been astonished to learn that the council seem powerless to do very much other than pay to have the gardens done.

"This is not an acceptable situation and the time has come for the council to go to the courts and speak up for the silent majority who have to put up with this.

"If someone is unable to do their garden then help should be provided but when perfectly able bodied fit people are so lazy and simply refuse to meet their responsibility, then action must be taken".

Fife Council's head of Housing and Neighbourhood Services, Derek Muir said, "I fully recognise the problem of untidy/overgrown gardens to which Cllr Rowley refers. Failure to maintain your garden is a clear breach of council tenancy conditions and, if we cannot resolve the problem in other ways it can lead to legal action.

"Unfortunately, the law does not consider an unkempt garden as a relevant ground to support a compulsory move, but we can ask the Sheriff to evict.

"The council does have a good approach to managing this issue, but is always working to improve how we do this. Our work this year with councillors and tenant representatives has led to a formal approach of estate inspections and so we are picking up problems more quickly and working to resolve them. We do issue warnings and visit where there are problems, and if the tenant qualifies through age or infirmity we will arrange for the garden care scheme. This is often enough to remedy matters, but there are some tenants who do continue to spoil the look of an area. In these situations we may decide to tidy the garden and pursue the tenant for costs incurred. In extreme situations, we have started the legal process for eviction but have not yet needed to go all the way.'

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jim duncan
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Aug 26, 07:51
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always go in house first start with the council gardeners who cut the grass and leave the mess from grass cuttings on the pavements with out putting it into bags

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parkjim27
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Aug 26, 07:51
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always go in house first start with the council gardeners who cut the grass and leave the mess from grass cuttings on the pavements with out putting it into bags

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john
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Aug 28, 23:36
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Quote "I am being advised that no court will support an eviction for not doing a garden ..."

Quote "Fife Council should take the necessary legal action and gain the support of the courts to remove people from houses ..."

Typical Labour politician, demanding the futile spending of public money.

Incidentally, we are in the depths of a recession and he's having a hissy fit about grass cutting?

His attitude is typical of the Labour mindset, when problems arise look to punish people, not find out the problem and solve it. It may well be that people are lazy when it comes to grass cutting; but it may well be any number of reasons. But Labour only ever has one answer - crush the voter underfoot.

Quote "the council seem powerless to do very much other than pay to have the gardens done." The council employ people who, as part of their job, cut the grass. I've seen them all over Fife with their mowers. Why are the council 'paying' to have council tenants' grass cut? Another waste of money?

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suzie
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Aug 30, 16:57
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maybe the people that are to lazy to work are the people that dont do them. Look at Woodside Cowdenbeath as an example

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ross
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Sep 8, 13:02
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i stay in lochgelly and i had to put up a six foot pannel fence to stop my family from being stung by jagy nettles coming over the small exsisting fence due to neighbour not maintaining there garden. last year the council went in and cleaned the garden up.but guess what its back to how it was. people should not have gardens if they cant look after them so i agree they should be put out of there homes if they cant meet the terms and agreements with the council i my self are a council tennant and i do my gardens every week.so whats to stop able body people doing theres lazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzy.

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Villager
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Sep 14, 12:58
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nice to see we have our priorities all sorted out eh, clowns

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