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The grass cutting season starts in April and usually finishes at the end of October. It can sometimes extend into November depending on the weather and the grass growth.
Our grass cutting teams work Monday to Friday, from 7am until around 2:30pm, when they return all the machinery to the depot.
We do the following work as part of our normal activities:
- cut grass verges in spring and summer
- cut hedges between October and February
- spray weeds 3 times; in late-spring, mid-summer and late summer to autumn
Highway grass cutting
Our highway verges are maintained according to their type. Please use the map to identify the cutting regime of a particular verge.
Verge Types
Category A – typically cut every two weeks.
Category B – typically cut around every four weeks. Areas with daffodils or other bulbs are left uncut until early June.
Category C – cut once per year. Sight lines around junctions, signs, bollards and street name plates are attended more frequently as required. Areas that are seeded with wildflowers are cut typically in late August.
Grass cutting
The schedule is updated around every four weeks, and the grass is cut around every four weeks, depending on the weather during the spring and summer months.
This is determined by the time if takes the grass to grow based on average weather conditions. (It may grow slower or faster depending on how dry or wet the weather is.)
If a grass verge is longer than you think it should be, we might be about to cut it. There is a grass cutting programme and this may be one of the last verges to be done. We may also be holding off while there are flowers growing.
Programme
We may encounter some delays to our programme, which can be due to several factors, such as the weather, the number of teams we have available to cut the grass, a build-up of litter or longer grass which takes more time to cut.
Week commencing 7 October
Beighton
Birley
Crookes
Broomhill
Darnall
Fulwood
Burngreave
Week commencing 14 October
Graves Park
Mosborough
Dore
Stocksbridge
Stannington
Southey
Week commencing 21 October
Arbourthorne
Central
Manor
Ecclesall
Firth Park
Hillsborough
Nether Edge
Week commencing 28 October
Richmond
Beauchief
Woodhouse
Shiregreen
East Ecclesfield
West Ecclesfield
Walkley
Gleadless
If we leave areas of grass uncut
We may not cut certain areas of grass each month. These may be part of the 20% of verges left for wildflowers or areas that are not part of the monthly grass cutting programme, such as sightlines at road junctions that need to be cut more often for safety reasons.
If there is litter after grass cutting
If grass is too long, some litter cannot be seen by our operatives. If this is the case, litter will be collected shortly after the grass has been cut, but not necessarily on the same day.
Grass cuttings that have been left
Cuttings can be left to mulch onto the verge and the teams to try to leaf blow as much of they can off the pavements onto the verge but this may not happen immediately after cutting.
in some locations, our operatives cannot walk on higher speed roads to collect grass cuttings due to the risk from traffic. In other areas, they may have been left due to parked cars restricting access.
If you would like to report a drain that has become blocked with grass, a request for it to be cleared can be made at Report a problem with a drain or gulley.
Leaf clearance
Our programme of leaf clearance focuses primarily on areas of the city with higher tree density to try to remove the bulk of leaves before they become a problem. It is dependent on the weather and the amount of leaves that need removing at each location.
We work to the government's code of practice for litter and refuse, which doesn’t require us to remove freshly fallen leaves. However, if leaves begin to mulch down and become a safety hazard in any areas across Sheffield, you can report them to us.
If you are at home and hear the street sweeper arrive on your street, it would be useful if you could move your car out of the way temporarily so that we can carry out an unobstructed clean.
Please do not sweep or blow leaves out of your garden into the highway as this can lead to blocked drains and increase the risk of flooding.
Our programme of leaf clearance ended in February 2024 and will begin again in Autumn 2024.
Trees and hedges
Trees and hedges are the responsibility of the person who owns the land. Whilst most roadside trees are maintained by Streets Ahead hedges are not usually our responsibility, although some in rural areas are.
The Highways Act 1980 (section 130) places a duty on us to remove obstructions on the highway. In some cases, if a tree or hedge is growing into the highway, we may write to you and ask that you cut it back. If the landowner fails to do this, then they can be taken to court or we can do the work and bill them. This only happens in rare circumstances when no other approach has been successful.
In some instances, we may need to remove overhanging trees or hedges at short notice without giving prior notice to the landowner. However, we expect that this would only occur where the vegetation poses a safety risk or prevents urgent work being carried out on the highway.
If a tree we own interferes with a phone line or electricity cable you need to contact the relevant utility company. If you have concerns about the safety of the tree, please contact us.
We are not required to remove trees or prune them if complaints are received about falling fruit or bird mess.
Weeds
We aim to keep the following weed free:
- perimeters of buildings
- shrub and rose beds
- the base of hedges that belong to Sheffield Homes
- channels and edges of roads and footpaths
- obstacles in verges and along the bottom of railings
Glyphosate is currently the most efficient product for killing weeds whilst being cost effective and easy to apply.
In August 2021, a decision was taken by the Council’s Co-operative Executive to review and reduce the use of glyphosate on land managed by us in a controlled and targeted way. Since 2020 our usage of glyphosate has reduced and will remain below that level of usage until 2025, during which period we continue to actively pursue ways to reduce it further.
In order to keep the frequency and amount of glyphosate used as low as possible on highway areas, we only spray weeds on a reactive basis once the weed has physically emerged, so we never spray proactively.
Norton Nursery
We provide floral decorations from our Norton Nursery.
It has a reputation for providing high quality flower displays on sponsorship sites or to enhance the look of shops, offices and buildings, including floral towers, baskets and plant troughs.
It also offers a full back up service of watering, feeding and dead plant replacement.
Landscape design
We design shrub and tree planting schemes to complement new buildings or enhance the look of existing sites.
Design schemes are individually tailored and include shrubs that flower at different times of the year, trees, evergreens and plants with varied foliage to provide seasonal interest, grassed areas and hard landscaping.
Please phone Norton Nursery on 0114 274 9654.