Grass Cutting
Grounds Maintenance teams carry out grass cutting duties throughout the Bradford district predominantly on highway verges but also for other council departments such as Asset Management. These duties include the general grass cutting and strimming and tidying from around obstacles which we are contracted to do 11 times a season (April-October).
Sponsored Roundabouts & Landscaping
We also maintain the sponsored roundabouts which are scattered throughout the district. Some of these contain floral displays and others are shrubbery areas. Once again, these have to be maintained to a high standard using regular grass cutting frequencies and maintenance visits.
If you are interested in finding out more about sponsored sites, or maybe sponsoring a site then visit the Bradford District Parks website.
During the winter months, the teams are kept busy attending to the many shrub beds which are scattered around the district and also carrying out major new landscaping works for the Council’s Landscape Design Unit. We are also carrying out the rejuvenating of tired old shrubberies and rose beds and re-designing and planting these with new 'exotic' plants to create interesting sustainable planting schemes.
Floral Displays
The teams are also responsible for all the floral displays in Bradford City Centre along with over 200 hanging baskets and this service also extends to the town centres in Keighley, Shipley, Ilkley and satellite villages such as Addingham, Menston, Burley, Harden and Haworth.
"In Bloom" Awards
The department also supports both the ‘Britain in Bloom’ and ‘Yorkshire in Bloom’ competitions by working alongside various council departments and village society’s both in the spring and summer judging campaigns, and by using this close working relationship, many high awards have been achieved.
In 2008 Bradford MDC won a GOLD award for Ilkley; SILVER GILT awards for Baildon, Haworth, Addingham and Esholt; SILVER awards for Keighley, Shipley and Menston; and a BRONZE award in Harden.
Weeds
The department is also responsible for the weed control throughout the district, although this area was put out to tender and is done by a private weed spraying company. There are over 2,000km of surfaced footway in the area which is contracted to receive 3 sprays a year. The spray treatments are weather dependent but are usually carried out in April/May, July and September and take around 5 weeks on each visit to complete.
The spray we use is Glyphosate which is a mild chemical and does not harm pets or have any dangerous environmental impact. We also carry out the spraying on foot which means that less spray is used and that it is targeted as opposed to blanket spraying.
Trees
All the district's highway tree stock is managed by Street Scene and the number of trees within this remit is around 12,000. There is a broad age class of trees along the highway ranging from anywhere between 90 years old to 9 years old. Most of the existing mature tree stock has been professionally maintained since the early 1980s and is in general good health with very few trees failing through storm damage.
Trees are inspected largely using programmed work schedules but a number of public requests are received through the call centre and demand for these can be quite high during the summer months. The service does attempt to inspect all public requests within a month, and where it is deemed appropriate, the work will be then scheduled.
Please be aware when making a request the service has to consider many different factors when assessing whether a tree requires any maintenance, such as ownership, preservation orders, species etc.
Where a tree or bush is private and causing an obstruction to the highway the case maybe passed to the Highways department for a notice to be severed requiring the owner to undertake works within a fixed time period.
The department is also committed to increasing the amount of tree cover throughout the district by implementing new tree planting works during the winter months on highway sites and, to this end, we endeavour to plant around 100 trees a year, either as replacement planting for recently removed trees or as part of a new planting programme or even public request.
Snickets
Grounds Maintenance service many snickets on a program, though as they are un-adopted footpaths, this is only done where resources allow. The service will cut back bushes and trees where necessary to allow passage.
