Dear Editor,

I write in response to Mr Hendrie’s letter in a previous week’s Gazette, regarding budgeted expenditure. As chairman of the Amenities Committee it is my job to ensure that the budget allocated to the committee is spent wisely and as carefully as possible, last year’s budget for expenditure within the Open Spaces Cost Centres was £86,430. And for the year we came in under budget.

I can confirm that there was money in the budget for last year’s additional grass cutting as the asset transfer of open spaces took longer than expected and the money had already been allocated to employ a contractor, so the additional cost of grass cutting was taken out of that budget. This was a decision made by the Committee as a response following numerous complaints from residents and visitors about the length of the grass on our riverside parks.

The additional operative we took on was as a direct result of the amount of work the town council now has to do to manage the assets that we all agreed to take on. The town council used to contract this kind of work out but I believe we are getting much better results and value for money by having our own operatives who are directly controlled by the council.

I am confident that it will be possible to wholly fund the height barrier on Red Meadow car park from other sources and businesses so the purchase and installation will hopefully be at zero cost to this council.

The town council and my committee are being very proactive about maintaining and improving our beautiful town for the benefit of residents, visitors and businesses, and having been re-elected as open spaces chairman I intend to continue this good work.

Councillor Richard Mayo

Ross Town Council

Chairman of the Amenities Committee