Park maintenance

Our grounds maintenance partners Idverde empty bins and clear litter from our parks and playgrounds each morning.  They will only remove dog waste if it is posing a health hazard such as in a playground. 

Parks Litter and Grass Cutting

Grass in parks is cut in three ways. 

• Large open spaces are cut using a tractor mounted mower. 
• Smaller areas or the edges of some sites are cut with a ride on mower and strimming will take place around bins, benches and edges.  
• Some sites will require all three of these operations and whilst they will be scheduled as close as possible there is often a small gap in carrying these out. 
• It will typically take 12 working days to complete a cut of all the Borough's parks before we start again, although periods of wet weather will increase the time between cuts. 
• Some areas of grass are left long for nature conservation purposes such as at Tolworth court farm local nature reserve.

If you would like to comment or report an issue in a park please email the environment team. We will only get back to you if we need more information about your report. Your report will be inspected next time our team are in your area.

Playgrounds

• All of our playgrounds have a daily visual check carried out by our contractor Idverde, and a formal monthly inspection from an independant playground specialist.  
• Any major health and safety issues will be logged and rectified through these monthly inspections. Some issues may be monitored over a period of time for deterioration.
• The council does not have a budget for major improvements, but does actively seek external and capital funding for improvements by working with community groups and stakeholders.

Park Trees

• Trees in parks are inspected every summer and any health and safety works identified.  Please note that trees in parks will not necessarily be pruned for reasons of aesthetics or light.  
• Find out more about street trees. Shrubs will be pruned at appropriate times of the year depending on their flowering cycle.