As many of you will be aware, last summer the council stopped cutting the grass between the St Mary’s Road and Derwent Road entrances in Waterloo (including the ex-Chaffers Playing Fields), giving it a single cut at the end of the season. The cutting had been stopped due to cutbacks, leaving the grass to grow long and wild, and whilst some people said letting the grass grow added to the natural feel of the area, the majority of people expressed concerns over what was being lost  – namely preventing people from being able to use the grassed areas for social and recreational purposes such as picnics, sports, rest, play and meeting people.  To further strengthen the argument for reintroducing a summer grass cutting regime, it came at a time when Rimrose Valley Friends was only a few months old and was starting to encourage people to come and make the most of what Rimrose Valley has to offer – not a good time to limit the recreational benefits on offer.

After a lot of delay initially from the council which prevented us from getting anything done about it during the summer of 2015, as we approached the autumn we were able to successfully engage and discuss what could be done.  We fully understand the council’s predicament over how to make the best of a difficult situation with such massive cutbacks, so we settled on a compromise.  The council agreed to cut a 10,500 square metre area during the 2016 cutting season.

We tentatively agreed that the grassy field just off the Glenwyllin Road entrance opposite Chaffers would be the best place to cut for two reasons.  Firstly because it’s fairly central and therefore easier for most people to get to, and secondly because Rimrose Valley Friends and the council have joint ideas about running events in Rimrose Valley, for which we feel that area is most appropriate with it being possible to open the gates up for parking from time to time if needed.

That all said, we want to make sure we are best representing the wishes of the communities who use Rimrose Valley, so if you have any feedback on this please click here to email us and let us know.  We will read your comments and if enough people express the same thing we’ll look to change what we can, but please be aware that increasing the area of grass to be cut is not an option, we’ve done well to get this area reintroduced.

Thank you