PEOPLE living in Gourock are cut up about the state of overgrown gardens in the town.
Residents say that grass has been left to grow to waist high at St John’s Road, Adelaide Street, Shore Street, Eastern View and Tower Drive.
The grass is supposed to be maintained by River Clyde Homes, the district’s largest housing association.
Kathleen Hanley, 55, of St John’s Road, said: “It’s not been cut at all all this year.
“I asked River Clyde Homes six weeks ago and they said it would be cut within two weeks.
“There’s quite a few elderly people in this close.
“This is an eyesore.”
Councillor Ronnie Ahlfeld says a move by River Clyde Homes to take grass-cutting in-house is causing problems.
He said: “I’ve been inundated with complaints from all over the town and people asking what’s happening.
“It’s just a shambles.
“The council started its grass cutting in March.
“River Clyde Homes are three months behind.”
Fellow independent councillor Lynne Quinn, pictured above with Councillor Ahlfeld, says housing bosses keep changing the deadlines to when the work will be done.
Councillor Quinn said: “I was told it would be done by May 31, then it would be the middle of the following week, then it was ‘give us another week’ — the deadlines have moved three times.
“I’ve been told there have been problems with machinery and training people up as well.
“It’s pretty simple — we want them to get out there to cut the grass and work on their communication.
“If we’re given a timescale we’re passing that on to residents, then the date passes and people contact me again.
“They need to give us a realistic timescale, we understand they need to train up new staff.”
Bosses at River Clyde Homes admitted that grass cutting has been delayed and say their new grounds teams are working extra hours to catch up.
Gary Wilson, executive director of property services, said: “We recognise that the grass cutting programme is running behind schedule, due to the transition from a private contractor to our locally employed team. We appreciate the patience of Inverclyde residents in this matter.
“The newly created grounds teams are working overtime and weekends to ensure we catch up, and an additional grass cutting team has taken on the garden tidy programme works.
“This week we have appointed four further members to the team, all Inverclyde residents, and hope to add a further four next week. This will take the numbers up to 20 staff.
“All first cuts are now complete and second cuts commenced on June 21 as part of a new planned programme that will see all areas cut every three weeks.
“The recent weather conditions have proven to be challenging but have created the perfect growing conditions — in the last month alone we have moved over 10 tonnes of green waste.
“We are also aware that we have some catching up to do over shrubs and flower beds but are confident of tackling these by the end of July.
“Again, we apologise for the delays and recognise residents’ concerns.
“We know that creating and managing our own team is the right thing to do as it will save rent payers’ money, ultimately see service improvements and has already created 20 jobs for local people.”