A COUNCIL turfed out of a grass cutting job is seeing "100 complaints a week" about untidy verges.

Wyre Forest District Council mowing services operators area is said to have been snubbed despite offering a bargain deal to Worcestershire County Council.

Now the leader of the district council Mike Oborski has lashed out at a newly negotiated county agreement with a grass cutting contractor that would cover mowing roadside verges in all six districts of the county including Wyre Forest for the next three years.

Because cutting is less frequent under the new arrangement, he says, the cutting of road side grass verges in Kidderminster and Stourport has become a "fiasco" and resulted in 100 complaints a week.

Mr Oborksi explained the county council used to pay the district council to cut roadside verges in the Kidderminster area five times a year.

"But the district council actually cuts the grass 14 times a year to bring the services up to the standards to which the district cut its own grassed areas," he said.

Launching a fight for a return to the old arrangement, he pointed out: "The county are now paying £26,000 for six cuts a year."

The district council offered to do the six paid cuts for £33,000 but this was with the addition of an extra eight free cuts, so it still made up to 14 a year.

He reckoned that to make a 21 per cent saving the county had actually slashed the services by 57 per cent and turned local highways and verges into an eyesore. "We think the county council has gone crazy," he said.

But a spokesman for the county council questioned Mr Oborski's conclusions.

"Wyre Forest tender came to £49,000 which was double the amount of the lowest tender we received," she said.

"The £33,000 only covered the straightforward verge cutting and did not include difficult work such as roundabouts or sweeping."

"If an offer had been made during the initial negotiations to cut all the grass 14 times for £33,000 this would have been immediately accepted as it is excellent value for money."

She said that under the new contract covering all urban grass cutting in the county, the council had increased the amount of cuts it would pay for from five to six a year, a deal that was successful in all districts except for Wyre Forest.