Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Council grass cutting is ‘failing local residents’

Andrew Baxter welcomed the Substance Abuse Awards
Andrew Baxter welcomed the Substance Abuse Awards

Residents claim the grass is growing out of control in parts of Lochaber and nothing is being done about it.

Locals maintain that while some areas are cut, others are left in a mess or missed out completely.

The new chair of the Lochaber Area Committee said the situation is “unacceptable” and the council is “failing local residents”.

Fort William and Ardnamurchan councillor, Andrew Baxter, added: “Last autumn, along with other councillors, I agreed to transfer council grass-cutting from external contractors to an in-house service.

“I felt this would provide better value for money and an improved service.

“But from my own experience and daily complaints received from across my ward, the council is failing local residents.

“I’ve raised this issue with council officers, but have seen no discernible improvement, so I will be demanding that they come and explain what has gone wrong.”

In Kinlochleven, resident Lauren Macdonald said the grass was “almost as high as washing lines” and people living in Montrose Square, Inverlochy, maintain it has been ignored with just the roadside strips being strimmed.

Louise Cameron from Caol said the pensioners’ common gardens in the village have not been cut this year at all. “The grass is higher than the bench the poor folk are supposed to sit on,” she added.

Kilchoan on the Ardnamurchan peninsula is particularly badly affected by long grass and growing vegetation because of the narrow roads.

Resident Trevor Potts said: “For the past few years we had a local guy who strimmed the verges well back, but a couple of days ago a person came along with a stand-up mower that barely cut back one foot.

“Ormsaigbeg is a popular walk for locals and visitors alike, but our roads are narrow and if the vegetation is high, walkers won’t step off the road to let traffic past.

“People pushing prams have a difficult time too.

“This is a safety issue too as cars and camper vans have to squeeze past pedestrians who are unwilling to step into waist-high wet bracken.”

At the Lochaber Area Committee yesterday, councillor Ian Ramon, said: “In Kilchoan, some of the verges are completely overgrown. In some places the bracken is over four feet tall and bushes are growing over the road.

“It’s a disaster.”

Councillor Baxter asked ward manager, Dot Ferguson, to arrange a meeting with community service officers.

He said: “We need to discuss this in detail as the situation is unacceptable and needs resolving as soon as possible.”