Summer is still burning bright and La Nina has certainly made her mark, resulting in ample grass growth over the last few months.
But, according to residents, the LNP-run Brisbane City Council and their contractors are simply not doing enough to keep up with the mowing demand and the quality of service is not up to scratch.
Many parks across the city are going un-mowed until grass is knee or waist height and when they do get mowed contractors leave behind huge clumps of grass clippings.
Virginia resident Jackson Richards, who owns a large mower and is a registered contractor with government agencies, got so fed up with the LNP-run Council’s failure to maintain local parks, he offered to mow his local park (A.R.C Hill Park in Virginia) for them.
“It’s a fairly heavily used park, it’s got a soccer pitch and playground and there’s a dog park…all of that’s been very very badly looked after for the last couple of years and I thought well rather than complaining (again), I’ll just offer to do it right,” Jackson told ABC Radio.
“I said hey I’ll get in there and do it for free if you just give me the access, and they (Council) said no we can’t do that.
“At the moment you can barely walk through it…there’s half a foot of rotting grass on top of the surface.
Jackson contacted his local Councillor Adam Allan’s office and got nowhere.
Jackson said they told him he “could probably just break the lock and go in there and do it yourself, you won’t get in trouble for it”.
“I don’t want to be at risk of fines for doing the Council’s job for them.”
Labor Opposition Leader Jared Cassidy said it’s appalling that residents are so fed up with Adam Allan and the LNP Administration that they are willing to do Council’s job for them.
“I have seen these kinds of issues popping up right across the city. What on earth are residents paying rates for if they can’t even get basic services?” Cr Cassidy said.
“Summer comes around every year, we were well informed that La Nina was inbound too, so why did this LNP Mayor Adrian Schrinner and his City Planning Chair Adam Allan not plan for an increase in grass growth?”
“The LNP are too busy wasting hundreds of millions of residents’ dollars on apps, self-promotion and a few shiny bridges instead of prioritising the basics in our suburbs.”
Listen to Jackson Richard’s full interview with ABC Radio here:
