Felixstowe Town Councillors have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure that the kerbsides of Felixstowe streets don’t end up being overcome by the weed growth we witnessed last year. We have received the following assurances from Suffolk County Council’s Area Highways Manager…
“I can confirm that Suffolk Highways have subcontract arrangements in place this year for weedkilling, grass cutting and grip cutting. The subcontractor we will be using for this work is Tilbrook Ltd who had undertaken the work in other parts of the county successfully last year.
The first round of weedkilling in East Area is currently programmed to commence on 18th April, although there may be some variability in the start date dependent upon the advancement of the growing season. We use systemic weed killers which act through the foliage and the optimum time to treat is when weeds are at the four-leaf stage. There will be a further round of weedkilling in the summer currently programmed to commence on 8th August. Each round is expected to be completed within 2 weeks. We will be meeting with our contractors next week to discuss the programme and have asked them to consider treating streets in Felixstowe at the start of the programme.
I am confident that the arrangements in place this year will avoid a repetition of the problems experienced last year.
…I will liaise with Suffolk Coastal Norse to seek their cooperation in clearing streets (of sand and detritus) …in advance of our weedkilling operations. I know some of these streets are routinely filled with parked cars and so there is significant coordination exercise to ensure that streets are free of parked cars at the time of sweeping.
East Area Highway Manager
Suffolk County Council”