First Impressions really count, and keeping the inside and outside of your home is equally important and we understand that. We also understand it’s important to create and maintain safe communal open spaces for you and your family to enjoy.
Our Great Places’ Grounds Maintenance Team works hard to keep customers’ shared outdoor spaces clean, neat and orderly through activities such as grass cutting, hedge cutting, trimming and pruning.
Customers who receive our Grounds Maintenance services can expect the following services.
Please note: that work is often weather dependent, particularly in the early/late months of growing season and in any extreme hot weather like we saw last summer. Visits will still be carried out, but tasks may change according to weather conditions at the time.
Charges vary according to where you live and are calculated based on the approximate annual time our team spend at your site.
Our Grounds Maintenance Team’s job is to keep our homes’ shared green spaces looking great. While this involves grass cutting, shrub and hedge maintenance it’s not a gardening service.
As part of your tenancy or leaseholder agreement, you’re responsible for keeping your own private garden tidy and cared for.
Trees in your private garden are also your responsibility, however, there are exceptions, so get in touch with us if you’re unsure.
Bird Nests
During the ‘Nesting Season’ which generally officially runs from February until August it’s recommended that we don’t do any tree or hedge cutting or site clearance. As contractors we must aim to avoid impact to nesting birds and infringement of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and breaching the European Habitats Directive 1992/Nesting Birds Directive.
When tree or vegetation clearance work has to be undertaken during the nesting season, a pre-works survey is carried out by a suitably competent person. All our supervisors carry out a pre-work nest check where required at this time of year and we will postpone work due to nesting birds if we find any.
An ‘old’ nest that is not being used is not protected by law – except for the nests of Golden Eagles and White-tailed Eagles which are protected all year round (as are Osprey nests in England). If we find a nest, the whole job is postponed until the birds have fledged and the nest is empty.
In the unlikely event that we have missed a nest and we come across one during work, we immediately suspend (ensuring the tree/hedge is safe) and come back to finish once the chicks have fledged. In our experience, most of our customers are sympathetic and if works need to be put on hold until nesting is over then this is usually accepted.
Wasps and Bees Nests
When it comes to bees and wasp nests in communal green spaces at your scheme please contact the Grounds Maintenance Team via the contact form on this page or the Customer Services Team who will arrange an inspection.
While we are not responsible for dealing with insect infestations in your individual gardens we do deal with bees or wasps if they are nesting in the brickwork or roof space of your home.
This work is often weather dependent, particularly in the early/late months of growing season and in any extreme hot weather. Visits will still be carried out, but tasks may change according to weather conditions at the time.
Currently we’re unable to notify customers of when we are attending, but in the case of missed visits we endeavour to attend site as quickly as possible, and keep our rota flexible due to bank holidays and the weather to ensure we have enough time to do a good job.
If you are unhappy with the Grounds Maintenance service please contact us via the contact form below and a member of the team will get back in touch with you.
You can also contact our Customer Services Team via the website or Live Chat and they will get a member of the Grounds Maintenance Team to contact you.
Yes, we have a team of supervisors who randomly carry out post inspections in each area and feedback to the Grounds Maintenance team anything for the team to pick up.
During light rain, we’d normally cut the grass so that we can keep up to date with our rota and once dried out it will look well. If the ground is too wet and soft for our commercial mowers that can weigh 80 kilos each, we’ll focus attention on other tasks during that visit.
Once the lawn is dry, another team would typically pick up the missed cut.
We don’t collect grass cuttings everywhere, as this is not only unnecessary, and it may affect the healthy growth of your lawn.
Our mowers are equipped with specialist mulching blades that are different to the mower you have at home cutting the grass into tiny pieces before dropping to the ground.
Leaving the clippings on your lawns will provide a ready source of fertiliser (known as mulch) which helps the soil retain water. This promotes root growth and a healthy lawn.
We collect leaves from November to March and visit our sites once a month. The leaves we don’t manage to collect on our visit are also ‘mulch’. They will create a great weed barrier preventing weeds and other grasses from growing.
Fallen leaves, as an additional physical layer of organic materials above ground, provide food, shelter, and nesting or bedding materials to a variety of wildlife, as well as overwintering protection for a number of insects, all of which work together to contribute to a healthy garden.
Our Facilities Team looks after maintenance of trees and shrubs in communal green spaces. We also carrying out coppicing when needed. This is a woodland management technique of felling trees at the base and allowing them to regrow.
It usually takes place between November and February, to ensure the birds are not nesting and the leaves have fallen. In many areas to the naked eye coppicing could look like a large hedge reduction and sometimes we need support from our specialist tree contracts when hedges are particular large or wide.
Trees and shrubs in gardens are customers responsibility, but if you have any problems relating to trees in common areas on our land, contact the grounds maintenance team about this by using the online form or you can contact our Customer Hub using the live chat facility through Chatabot who will make sure your enquiry goes to the right place.
You can expect the Grounds Maintenance Team to carry work once a month in January, April, June, August and October. This is subject to the weather conditions, as our licenced weed sprayers can only deploy glyphosate (the chemical used for weed treatment) on dry days and we have to consider recent rain and rain coming soon into the equation to prevent any glyphosate that is harmful to the environment escaping into the water courses.
Litter collection is usually once a month between November and February, and twice a month between March and October. If you notice any fly tipping in your area please contact your Neighbourhood Services Manager in the first instance and they will investigate
If you feel that something has been missed or not quite right you can contact the grounds maintenance team about this by using the online form below or our Customer Hub using the live chat facility through Chatabot who will make sure your enquiry goes to the right place.
If you have any other Grounds Maintenance questions you can contact the grounds maintenance team about this by using the online form below or our Customer Hub using the live chat facility through Chatabot who will make sure your enquiry goes to the right place.
