Cr Cathy Casey gets to work mowing her berm
Residents in the former council areas of North Shore, Manukau, and Waitakere are very used to taking care of the berm (grass verge) outside their homes. In the old Auckland City Council areas mowing was undertaken by contractors.
From 1 July the whole Auckland region now has the same level of service and only berms adjacent to council-owned properties and alongside main arterials will be mowed automatically. This was a decision adopted in the Auckland Council Annual Plan 2013/2014. It will save ratepayers around $3m per year. To have provided a mowing service to the whole regional would have cost an additional $15 million.
Auckland Transport is now administering the maintenance of the berms as part of its road reserve funding and providing information about when a mowing service will be provided for berms adjacent to private property.
Auckland Transport has stated online that it may consider mowing berms adjacent to properties that are:
- steep and mowing poses a significant safety hazard (1:4 gradient)
- not to the front, side of, or directly accessible from the property
- in town centres or major commercial centres
- within road corridors at shopping centres
- in front of unoccupied properties where non-maintenance will result in a traffic or fire hazard and impact negatively on visual amenity; or
- have a swale, rain garden, overland flow path, open channel, drain or other stormwater asset within the berm
In special circumstances, Auckland Transport may also consider mowing berms adjacent to private property if there are significant health or safety issues, accessing the berm is difficult or there is risk of damaging public assets.
More information on the Auckland Transport website here. Requests for berm mowing should be made by calling 355 3553.
City Vision Media Release 2 October 2013: Berms – City Vision offer solutions not rhetoric