Worries over weeds in Thurso as council confirms drop in Caithness amenities team
A further cut in local authority seasonal grounds staff in the far north is going to put more pressure on volunteers to pick up the slack.
Otherwise, mounting complaints about weed-strewn paths, overgrown foliage and unkempt cemeteries are set to escalate.
The warning came as Thurso community councillors listed their latest gripes about the maintenance of open public areas in the town.
Gill Arrowsmith was not at last week’s meeting but pithily summed up her grievance in a one-sentence e-mail. “Weeds everywhere, grass uncut, town looking sad,” it read.
Colleague Corinne Nicklin took aim at the lack of attention paid by Highland Council to the steps at the town’s Esplanade.
“The steps are in a terrible condition,” she said. “They were weeded in June but they are back as bad as ever.

“Some of the steps are falling apart and it looks like they (Highland Council) will only do something if somebody falls down them.”
Mrs Nicklin said the weeding was done by Rolls Royce workers at Vulcan as part of a community volunteer scheme.
She added that the town’s cemetery is in an “appalling” state.
“It used to be very well cared for and looked lovely.
“It’s very, very sad but they (Highland Council) just shrug their shoulders and say they don’t have the money.”
She was aware of volunteers increasingly being deployed to help maintain cemeteries.
But she said: “With the best will in the world, volunteers can’t be expected to do that on a permanent basis.”
Council colleague Grant Miller said that as well as the cemetery, the steps leading to it from the Riverside are in “a really, really bad condition”.
Local Highland councillor Matthew Reiss said that since 2017, there has been a 50 per cent reduction in the authority’s ground maintenance seasonal workforce.
It had, he said, been cut from eight to six in the past year.
A Highland Council spokesman later confirmed: “There has been a change in establishment of our Amenity Seasonal workforce this season in Caithness, with a reduction from eight to six.”
Asked whether this will have led to a further reduction in work done, he replied: “The Amenities Service carries out grounds maintenance work on behalf of a number of other council departments, such as housing.
“All work is undertaken with established Service Level Agreements in place and grounds maintenance work meets the agreed specification within current budgets.”