Mackay Regional Council receives community petition to mow grass

A community-driven petition called for Mackay Council to improve its mowing of the region. Now the mayor has responded.

Mackay Mayor Greg Williamson has described the council’s mowing responsibilities as “almost impossible” after a community petition was tabled at the Wednesday meeting, calling for better management of the region’s grass.

The petition was signed by hundreds of residents, with the author making an impassioned plea to let council know “mowing around Mackay isn’t getting done”.

“Around our highways, beaches, bridges, parks so much long grasses are growing everywhere,” the petition reads.

“When we have heavy rain, we need to have the water flowing not filling up.

“When the tourists come we would like them to see a good place.”

Photo of an overgrown part of the Mackay Regional Council area.

The author asked the councillors to drive around the region and see all the overgrown grass for themselves.

Cr Williamson thanked the community for the “head’s up” but said the council was “getting on top of it” after a difficult period.

“It is almost impossible to keep on top of the 15 million sqm of lawn that we have got to mow, if you don’t have enough teams to do it,” he said.

“We have had serious issues with keeping on top of our mowing because of the strange weather patterns this year and because of staff shortages.

“We have got not just 160 vacancies in council but we have staff shortages like every other business that affect us on an everyday basis and particularly with the outdoor team as well.”

He said council staff had looked into hiring contractors to help ease the load, but they were feeling that “exact same pinch”.

The mayor said the recent weather has helped the council recover but asked for the public to “cut us a little bit of slack”.

“We have 7600 sqm in our council area, we have 41 communities of interest and all of those require attention from the council, particularly in the public environment,” Cr Williamson said.

“Not just because of the weather but because of Covid and because of the absenteeism that we have on a daily basis.

“We are not doing this on purpose, we would love to have it all cleaned up but we think we are getting there.”