Canterbury-Bankstown residents begin mowing grass on public roadways amid ‘lack of action’ from council, state government

Frustrated homeowners are arming themselves with lawnmowers to deal with overgrown grass along the sides of public roads as they battle for state and local governments to take responsibility.

Frustrated homeowners are arming themselves with lawnmowers to deal with overgrown grass along the sides of public roads as they battle for state and local governments to take responsibility of the task themselves.

The state of verges along main roads in the sprawling Canterbury-Bankstown Council region has been labelled a “disgrace” by some homeowners as they push for government road maintenance crews to carry out more mowing works on public land under their control.

Some residents claim they have made repeated requests to the council and Transport for NSW to carry out routine maintenance along busy thoroughfares such as King Georges Rd to no avail.

In Canterbury, frustrated resident Peter Katholos has begun paying gardeners to mow verges on state-controlled land outside his home.

He said overgrown grass is “unsightly” and can also present safety hazards for pedestrians and motorists including blocking sightlines for motorists navigating traffic.

Residents say they are mowing grass themselves on state and council controlled roads.

“The streets are a joke, they’re not being maintained and no one seems to want to take responsibility for it,” he said.

Canterbury-Bankstown councillor Harry Stavrinos.

“I started paying a gardener to mow the grass and the cost is $50 each time – having to do that every six weeks is really adding up.”

Canterbury-Bankstown councillor Harry Stavrinos said community frustration over the lack of maintenance works had been compounded by confusion surrounding which level of government has control of roads running through the region.

According to the council’s mowing policy, it has a responsibility for roadside mowing works in roads such as gateway locations to the Canterbury-Bankstown local government area and along the side of some railway lines.

However, there are also 16 state-controlled roads that run through the council region including the Bexley Rd, Canterbury Rd and King Georges Rd.

An example of a verge residents want maintained.

“When some roads are council controlled and others are state roads, residents don’t know who to complain to,” Mr Stavrinos said.

“We’ve now got a situation where residents are going out on main roads and cutting the grass right next to 40,000 cars a day – it’s unacceptable.”

Transport for NSW in a statement said its maintenance of the road network “is continual and is of utmost importance” to the department.

A spokesman for the department said grass growth was also impacted by rainfall and that the “length of time between grass maintenance may differ depending on rainfall levels”.

“Grassed median maintenance is undertaken by ConnectSydney on behalf of Transport for NSW across the network on a cyclic basis, typically mowing all medians eight times per year, subject to weather and growing conditions,” he said.

“Community feedback aids us in maintaining greater visibility of the network, targeting areas most in need of maintenance and therefore improving our service delivery.
“Transport for NSW maintains only central medians on State roads and M5 maintenance is carried out by Interlink Roads.”

Canterbury-Bankstown Council has written to the NSW Transport Minister John Graham requesting the NSW Government allocate more funding and resources to maintain verges along state roads.

The council was contacted for additional comment but did not respond to questions.