Falkirk Council: Grass cutting pilot to be rolled out despite some objections

The grassy areas – from parks to road verges – that the council looks after cover land the size of 1500 football pitches, although only 4.5 per cent of it was involved in the pilot.

Members of Falkirk Council’s executive heard on Tuesday that the reduction in carbon as a result of the Sustainable Grass Management pilot was equivalent to taking 33 family cars off the road.

At the meeting, approval was given to roll out the changes to a wider area as members heard that could remove around 120 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere every year.

But reducing carbon is not the only focus of the climate emergency – the project, which started last March, also a saw crucial increase in biodiversity.

Site surveys found an incredible 4300 per cent increase in the number of different invertebrate species – and they believe there will be more they didn’t manage to count.

In addition, nearly 400 volunteers helped plant spring bulbs, wildflowers, fruit trees and native broadleaf trees in a bid to support local wildlife.

Pupils from Beancross Primary, Nethermains Primary, Stenhousemuir Primary, Maddiston Primary, Denny Primary, Larbert Early Learning and Childcare Centre, Larbert High School, and Denny High School along with several community groups, helped to plant over 1600 woodland trees, 34 fruit trees and 3750 spring bulbs.

Biodiversity officer Anna Perks said the community volunteers were continuing to be involved in “keeping an eye on things”.

She said: “It was an incredibly positive part of the project and really highlighted the appetite for getting engaged in actively promoting biodiversity and actively taking action to combat climate change.”

SNP councillor Iain Sinclair, the council’s climate change spokesperson, said: “This shows that our communities care about their local environment and are willing to roll up their sleeves to improve their local place and to do their bit for the nature crisis too.”

The scheme was not without its critics, and around 600 people took part in a consultation during the pilot.

More than 400 were positive about the benefits for biodiversity and the environment but 237 responses had concerns about the appearance of sites.

Several responses objected to the longer grass in areas used for dog walking, saying some people were not picking up after their dogs while 142 responses were worried about more ticks in the longer grass.

In six of the 35 areas, there were more negative than positive comments and the naturalised grass was reduced at Kinnigars Park, Braesview, Easter Carmuirs Park and Haypark, after feedback about the loss of recreational space.

Other minor adjustments were made to meadow or naturalised grass areas at some sites, such as cutting additional mown paths to allow people easier access.

Councillor Sinclair said: “Our communities have told us what they liked and disliked while our teams have learned a few hard lessons from this pilot, including about where – and importantly where not – to carry out this new approach.

“But this was part of the reason for doing this project as a pilot.”

Overall, the report found a lot of support for using the grass management to improve the local environment although there was less support for using it as a way to save money.

The report showed that even the small increase in natural grassland has already been providing vital shelter and food for animals from invertebrates to mammals including shrews, voles, deer and foxes.

The wildflowers that appeared are also providing a crucial source of nectar for pollinating insects like butterflies, bees, moths and hoverflies, which have seen 97 per cent of their habitat disappear since the 1930s.

Labour councillor Alan Nimmo said that many people “did not like the look of the areas” involved in the pilot and said that dog fouling was a significant issue and more enforcement action should be taken.

Director of place Malcolm Bennie said: “There is no amount of resource you can put in place that will prevent residents across the authority not behaving appropriately, so what we need to do is more of the ‘change campaign’ about improving people’s behaviour in terms of picking up after their pets because that’s the only way we’ll really tackle the dog fouling situation.”

Labour leader Anne Hannah said it was important to “make it easy for people to do the right thing” by thinking about things such as where bins were placed and it was vital to speak to the community about any changes being introduced.

Mr Sinclair said that he felt it had been “a very successful pilot” and he was keen to see it being rolled out more widely.

While not everyone was happy with the appearance of the natural grass, the staff behind the project believe that many of the benefits are still to come.

Some of the plants that were sown during the pilot will take several years to become established and they hope that people will come to like the more natural flowers that appear in time.

SNP councillor Gary Bouse, who represents Carse, Kinnaird and Tryst, agreed and said he was looking forward to seeing the thousands of bulbs that had been planted in his community last year.

“In my ward 47,000 bulbs were planted – that’s going to be a splash of colour come the spring that everybody will enjoy!”