Council can help out with gardening
Free and paid for services
Residents across South Lanarkshire can apply for the council’s service that helps to care for their gardens.
The Care of Gardens scheme is open for applications and offers regular garden work.
It runs from April 5 until October.
The service is free for South Lanarkshire Council tenants who meet certain criteria, and is also able to be booked for a charge by all other residents.
A total of 14 grass cuts are carried out approximately every fortnight and include the collection and disposal of cuttings and, where required strimming to vertical edging.
Two hedge cuts are also offered for hedges that are five feet tall or under, and a herbicide spray can also be applied once a year to pathways.
The council is, however, unable to maintain any gardens where access via the house is required.
The service is free of charge to South Lanarkshire Council tenants who meet one of the following criteria:
■over the age of 70 with no one else between the age of 16-69 living with them;
■ on Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Attendance Allowance or Personal -Independence Payment (PIP); ■registered blind; ■ in receipt of war disablement pension or benefits through the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme; or
■in possession of a blue badge.
Anyone qualifying for the free service can apply on the council website.
However, South
Lanarkshire Council tenants who don’t qualify for the free service can still apply to pay to have it carried out.
Also able to pay for the service, as long as they have responsibility to maintain their own garden area and provided the garden is not a shared or common garden and is of a size that can be cut by one operative using a petrol lawnmower, are resident who are either: ■home-owners; ■landlords; ■private tenants; or ■ housing association tenants.
If the scheme is joined after it starts, charges will be levied for the months it is carried out only.
Anyone wishing to find more information on the charges, or those who wish to apply for the payable service scheme can do so online at the council’s website.