Tipperary councillor calls on Council to tackle grass cutting issues in housing estates

Nenagh Municipal District Council has been urged to explain how it can cut grass in a Nenagh estate and not cut grass in an adjoining estate.

Cllr Seamus Morris has highlighted that the council cuts the grass in Derrylavin Heights on Old Birr Road, but makes the residents pay for the same service in nearby Hawthorns.

The green area at Hawthorns has not been cut due to the inability of the Residents’ Association to collect yearly subscriptions for the job, he said.

Cllr Morris, who has raised the issue at Municipal District Council meetings previously, said that some of the reasons given for non-payment of subscriptions include the fact that the Council owned houses in the estate and people want to know why they don’t pay towards grasscutting on behalf of their tenants.

He said that others say they already pay property tax.

One of the mayor reasons is that despite their efforts to maintain the estate, their work is being undermined by the overgrowth of weeds from the military barracks. They want the Depart of Defence to maintain their site and repair the damage to Hawthorns.

Cllr Morris also said that residents point out that the Council has a depot in the estate and they cut the grass there, so why not in the rest of the estate.

Another reason is that the Council cuts the grass in many private estates in the town, for example nearby Derrylavin Heights, and they want to know what was the difference between Hawthorns and Derrylavin Heights.

“The residents have asked me to find out how many houses in the estate are used as social housing,” he said.

Cllr Morris said that the residents had also asked him to find out how many houses in each estate in the district that did not get grass cuts by the Council is used for social housing so it can ascertain how much money was not being collected in the district from council housing in private estates.