Rotorua woman spends 13 hours mowing grass on council land after complaints fall on ‘deaf ears’

Tracey McLeod has been out mowing overgrown grass on council land as her complaints to the council have fallen on "deaf ears". Photo / Andrew Warner

A Rotorua woman says she has spent about 13 hours mowing grass on council land after her complaints of overgrown areas fell on ‘‘deaf ears”.

Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers and Restore Rotorua member Tracey McLeod said she had decided to “take matters into my own hands” after complaining for “months” to the council.

“It’s just the total appearance of the city ... and we just feel that this is a tourist town and the shop window is the sides of the roads.

“And now that the gateway’s open to international tourists, we want the town presented like it used to be.”

Tracey McLeod has been out mowing overgrown grass on council land after her complaints fell on "deaf ears". Photo / Andrew Warner.

McLeod said she had been using her own lawnmower and weedeater to mow overgrown areas of grass in Rotorua, which she started doing by herself on Sunday.

On Monday, McLeod said she had mowed the berm and a couple of rows in and around the sign of the Redwoods forest. She had also been mowing on Pererika St.

“There’s a couple of really big, long paddocks, and some of the grass gets up to about shoulder height. So that involves quite a bit of work because you’ve got to do a high mow and then you’ve got to do heaps of weed-eating.”

Tracey McLeod used her own equipment to mow and weed a berm on Pererika St.

McLeod said she had spent about 13 hours mowing grass in three days.

She said she had been complaining for “months” to the council but those complaints had “fallen on deaf ears”.

“The sides of the roads out at Lake Tarawera got really high, they actually scratched the side of my vehicle, and they were very unsafe because you had to drive in the middle of the road to avoid the grass coming onto the road and the marker pegs weren’t visible.”

Rotorua Lakes Council community wellbeing deputy chief executive Anaru Pewhairangi said its team had been working “incredibly hard” to catch up on the mowing schedule and appreciated the community’s patience.

InfraCore, its mowing contractors, were in a similar position to many businesses in New Zealand, with staff shortages impacting businesses across the board.

Pewhairangi said additional staff had been employed by InfraCore part-time to assist with the mowing schedule over the busy summer period.

“Last year, New Zealand experienced its warmest and wettest winter on record according to Niwa [National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research] and we have had an incredibly wet summer as well.

“Understandably, this has created added pressure for mowing contractors across the district, with the combined wet weather and exceptional grass growth making grass maintenance difficult over the last six months.”

Pewhairangi said many other areas in New Zealand had been facing the same issue with grass growth.

The Bay of Plenty Times reported on February 19 that Tauranga City Council had been struggling to keep up with lawnmowing as rain and warm temperatures meant grass and weeds were “growing much faster than normal”.

In a media release on January 26, Whakatāne District Council called for patience from the community as staff dealt with areas of long grass at parks and sports grounds.

In November, the Rotorua Daily Post reported nine contractors from InfraCore were responsible for mowing nearly 450 hectares - the equivalent of 300 Eden Park rugby fields.

At the time, general manager of operations Dave Rose said his team worked hard to keep the grass at an acceptable level.

“We’ve got guys out there every day - the mowing team mows five days a week year-round and six days a week during periods of high growth.”