We’re making repairs to the grass verges on Burnside Grove this April.
Burnside Grove offers an attractive green spine running through the heart of our village. With its grass verges, open aspect and views of the countryside its importance to residents is recognised in both the Parish Plan and the Tollerton Neighbourhood Plan.
Burnside Grove is also one of the busiest thoroughfares in the village and during the year the grass verges are damaged by vehicles driving over them instead of the road and through parking. This can be particularly damaging during the winter months when the ground is wet and soft.
With vehicle movement and footfall reduced during the Easter holidays our contractors will be:
- Repairing compacted, rutted or bare patches. This will involve reconstruction of the verge and grass seeding. The repaired areas will be fenced off whilst the seed germinates.
- Edging to the whole of Burnside Grove to remove overgrown grass from the pavement.
- Weeding along the length of Burnside Grove and removing moss to make the pavement less slippery.
Longer term protection for Burnside Grove
We are also exploring other options for longer term protection of the verges.
There is no simple answer. We have explored a resident suggestion about fitting under soil matting to reinforce the structure of the verge but have received advice from a number of contractors that this is unlikely to be successful.
The highways authority suggest the use of reflective poles 90cm high, another suggestions is to use well maintained street trees but there is a concern about further root damage to the pavement. There are no immediate plans to make further changes this year.
Please help us maintain Burnside Grove by:
- Watering new grass seed and during drier periods
- Walking on the pavement whilst the new grass becomes established
- Parking on drives where possible and not grass verges, leaving sufficient space for farm and emergency vehicles
- Driving on the highway and not the grass
Other maintenance in the village this Spring
This year the Parish Council has agreed five key village wide maintenance actions that residents can expect to see in the early part of the year:
- Treatment of weeds around the village – working with a small local contractor, a one off treatment was applied in March to get on top of existing weeds across the whole village. Over a few weeks weeds will start to yellow and this will penetrate the roots of the plants to stop them growing back
- Treatment of moss – our contractor used bicarbonate of soda / baking powder to treat the moss growing on the pavement that makes it slippery in wet conditions – particularly on those sections of pavement that get the least sunlight.
- Mechanical weeding – last year we employed temporary staff to hand remove weeds, it was hard work and slow progress. We have a new machine – a weedo – to remove weeds and the soil in the cracks of the pavement that weeds grow in. Work is due to commence in April now that the weed treatment has had chance to penetrate the roots of existing weeds.
- Hand weeding and mulching – the new flower beds in the village are being hand weeded and mulched with mushroom compost which will both reduce the amount of weeding needed and feed the plants helping them to get established.
- Cleaning of paving in the Village Centre – last year we brought in a local contractor to spray clean the war memorial and the previous year we employed local residents to clean the hard surfaces at the Open Space. It’s some years since the paving in the village centre was cleaned and this was cleaned in early April brighten up the village centre.
Read more about village maintenance this spring here.