By Jamie Salter
Residents are fed up with unmown grass in the Berwick Waters Estate, which has grown as tall as one metre high in some areas.
Local resident Gary Perkins said the grass had been cut only twice in the past three-and-a-half months.
“I’ve phoned the council up every couple of weeks and I’m fed up with their excuses,“ Mr Perkins said.
“They sent a general email to everyone saying the reason it hasn’t been cut is the weather and that they can’t get people to cut the grass, but is it any different one kilometre over the road in Berwick Springs?
“Why should I pay my rates if the grass is not cut?“
Tulliallan Community Action Group member Bec Hyland said the grass was too long for children who played in the area.
“Every year we always have a problem with the grass and we’re always sending in heaps of requests to get it mowed, you’d think they would be more prepared for it,“ Ms Hyland said.
“We know this time of year is a high growth period but it shouldn’t get this out of control.
“It got out of whack before the rain came this year.
“We had a neighbour’s dog run out on to the road that got hit by a car because the driver couldn’t see the dog in the grass.“
City of Casey manager city presentation David Richardson said council maintained more than 2500 parks, reserves and roadsides.
“This year, the region has received higher than normal levels of rainfall throughout winter and spring which has resulted in extensive grass growth,“ Mr Richardson said.
“The level of rainfall received has affected our routine open space maintenance schedule across the municipality, in some cases restricting the ability of machinery to access very wet areas to deal with above average growth.“
He said council was working with contractors to ensure the mowing programs return to schedule as quickly as possible.
“Given the scale of parks, reserves and roadsides across Casey, this is likely to take some weeks yet,“ Mr Richardson said.
“We understand that the delayed program is requiring additional understanding from residents, and we again sincerely apologise at the state of the parks while our teams work with contractors to return the program to schedule.“
