Grass Cutting
Historically, Medway Council has appeared to concentrate on those highly visible areas of Medway, such as Rochester Castle and Gillingham Park, and rural villages such as ours did not always receive the levels of care and attention demanded by local residents. Therefore, in April 2007, the Parish Council took on the devolved function of maintaining all the Publicly owned green spaces within the Parish Boarder from Medway Council.
The Parish Council put together a specification and invited contractors to make sealed bids for the tender. Six companies approached the Parish Council and a total of four bids were received. After due consideration, the contract was awarded by the full Parish council to Turfsoil for a twelve month probationary period.
During this first twelve months, the green spaces within the village saw a remarked improvement and much positive feedback was received by the Council. On the rare occasions when problems have arisen, Turfsoil have quickly and effectively remedied the situation.
In April 2008, the Parish Council again invited tenders on an annual basis, but satisfied with Turfsoil, invited Turfsoil to bid on a tri-annual basis. Two companies submitted bids for the annual contract and Tursoil submitted their tri-annual bid. After due deliberation, the contract was again awarded by the full Parish Council on a tri-annual basis to Turfsoil, whose bid was considered to offer the best value in both price and standard.
Councillor Martin Mitchell as Portfolio Holder together with the Parish Clerk are responsible for the management of this contract and meet on a monthly basis with the contractor to monitor standards.
With effect from January 1st, 2009 the contract will be extended to include the publicly owned land on the Wilcon Estate, following the successful negotiations between the Parish Council and the Developer. This will make the Parish Council responsible for over 143,000 sq metres of grass cutting, managed woodlands and boarders and verge side maintenance.