At its meeting on 19th February 2016 the County Council agreed its budget for the financial year 2016/17. Reductions of £3.08 million were agreed in Highway Asset Maintenance, which includes environmental maintenance as listed below. Further savings were laid out for future years.

In March, letters were sent to all parishes and district/city/borough councils that we understood had grass cutting agreements with ourselves. These letters gave notice that County Council funding for amenity grass cutting would end on 31 March 2017.

• The County Council will end funding of amenity grass cutting from 31 March 2017.

• The County Council will still carry out highway safety grass cutting.

• The exact areas and the frequency of cutting will need to be determined following discussions with yourselves, parishes and contractors.

• The transition from the old cutting regime to the new involves many factors and we have a variety of procurement arrangements. We will be engaging with partners and discussions have already commenced with some of your colleagues.

• Grass Verges – Amenity cuts cease 31 March 2017.

• Highway Safety cuts reduce from 3 in 2015/2016 to 2 in 201620/17 and likely to go down to 1 in 2017/2018 (subject to Members’ ratification)

• Weedspraying – Reduces to 1 for 2016/2017 season, but we will honour agreements where notice is required. • Gully Emptying – One annual clean with emergency response in 2016/2017; targeted clean with emergency response in 2017/2018.

• Rights of Way – Parish Paths Agreement ended this year and grass cutting removed from 2017/2018.

• A Communications Plan will be developed by our corporate communications team to inform the more significant changes in 2017/2018