Cabinet Member for Culture and Leisure, Cllr Peter Bradbury, said: “Everything else may have stopped during lockdown but as keen gardeners will know, the grass is still growing. If we don’t start mowing it now then soon our parks, which we really want to keep open so that residents who aren’t lucky enough to have their own outdoor space can use them during lockdown, will really start to suffer.”

“However, as we are operating with significantly reduced staff levels due to Covid-19 and need to ensure our parks team adhere to social distancing requirements, this year the frequency at which our areas of grassland will be mown, will be much reduced.”

“Some mowing is essential though. If you don’t carry out regular maintenance, areas can quickly get out of hand and the longer you leave it, the longer it takes to get back into shape. That’s particularly true of our sports playing surfaces. If we don’t maintain them now it may take some time and significant investment to make them playable again.”

Cutting of highway verges will focus on areas where too much growth could cause visibility issues and impact on the safety of road users and pedestrians.