Your questions answered

Our Customer Relationship Team answer some of your recently asked questions...

Question: What’s the status of my repair?

Answer: We understand how important your repairs are and rest assured we’re working hard to get to you as soon as we can. Our Repairs Team remain under significant pressure from issues outside of our control. Colleague shortages due to self-isolation periods, and a lack of parts and materials experienced nationally due to COVID-19 were already putting unprecedented pressure on our team. The devastating impact of Storm Arwen and other bad weather has then added to this. To give a little bit of context, on an average day the team receives 450 new jobs but that figure leapt to 1,200 the first working day after Storm Arwen and calls remained at two or three times the usual volume for the rest of the week. By reallocating budgets and bringing in extra contractors, we are working through the jobs as quickly as we can.

We have visibility of all jobs that have been logged with us – we know if you’re waiting and we’re doing everything we can to alleviate the delays. We’re grateful for your patience. Our team are working on a priority basis, tackling the most urgent jobs first and outside of this they are looking at work in date order – from the oldest jobs first. The MyKarbon portal is the quickest way to view updates on your repair – see the back page for details.

Question: Why hasn't my grass been cut?

Answer: We’ve been working with customers to draw up new grass cutting schedules and consider contractors, so you may see changes to the team who normally cut your grass as well as the frequency in which they carry out the job. You might notice some changes to the way we are managing open spaces too, with some larger areas seeing reduced grass cutting to benefit the environment.

By reducing the number of cuts, we’ll not only reduce the use of machinery and pollution caused, we’ll also encourage the growth of wildflowers – attracting bees and other insects and wildlife to the area, see page 4 for more on this. You can expect a grass cut roughly once a fortnight on most spaces and eight times a year on some larger public open spaces, but this can sometimes change depending on adverse weather conditions and colleague absences. The perimeter of all areas will be maintained 16 times a year to prevent encroachment onto footpaths. Our grounds maintenance colleagues will check grassed areas to make decisions about the best time to cut. Key areas where growth would be inappropriate will continue to be maintained as normal, such as sports pitches, play areas and ornamental grass.

Question: I have tree roots blocking/damaging my drains, what can I do?

Answer: It’s rare for tree roots to physically break underground drains and pipe work. Trees will however, grow where conditions are most favourable so if there is an old cracked pipe that is leaking water into the soil, it will attract nearby roots. These may then enter the pipe and cause more blockage or damage. The removal of the tree in these instances is very rarely required as replacement or repair of faulty drains and pipes with modern materials will usually stop the leak and solve the problem. Just let our Repairs Team know if you think you have this problem.