GWYNEDD Council has been awarded a contract to tend to nearly 400,000 metres of housing association grassland - just a year after the local authority was lambasted for reducing grass cutting services.

Cartrefi Cymunedol Gwynedd owns over 3 million square metres of land across the county.

Of that 3 million, 390,000m2 is grassland which needs to be cut on a regular basis and CCG announced last week that a new £700,000 contract for this work has been awarded to Gwynedd Council.

The local authority faced strong criticism last year after it slashed its grass cutting services due to swingeing budget cuts facing the county council. One example was in Tywyn where bereaved family members were unable to reach their loved ones graves due to “knee high” vegetation.

Gethin Armstrong, repairs and maintenance client manager at CCG, said: “We own many open spaces across our Gwynedd estates, and it is very important to us that we maintain our estates to ensure they are kept neat and tidy to provide a comfortable environment for our tenants and the wide communities. We are pleased that our £700,000 grounds maintenance contract has been awarded to Cyngor Gwynedd over the next two years."

Gwyn Morris Jones, head of Gwynedd Council’s Highways and Municipal Department said: “We are very pleased to be working together with Cartrefi Cymunedol Gwynedd."

Read the full story in this week’s north editions of the Cambrian News