The council is responsible for managing and maintaining a variety of green spaces throughout the borough.

Our grounds maintenance partner Idverde UK, provides the high quality services outlined below to improve the attractiveness of the local environment. They are responsible for the planting and maintenance of border areas with a range of plants including flowers, shrubs and small trees in Council-owned parks and open spaces and in housing areas.

Leicestershire County Council carry out all maintenance to roundabouts and roadside grass verges along roads between towns and villages. If you have any queries please visit the Leicestershire County Council website page.

For further information please read our Grounds Maintenance Standards.

Pruning

Pruning is subject to weather conditions and work on some of the sites might not take place on the indicated dates.

Shrubs

Shrubs are woody plants with more than one stem and a mature height of less than 15 feet. Shrubs can be deciduous or evergreen and range in size from creeping along the ground to 15 feet tall. Shrubs can be left to grow naturally or they can be pruned and shaped. At times, they are pruned into a severe, formal shape or a topiary.

Hedges

According to the Oxford Dictionaries website, a hedge is "a fence or boundary formed by closely growing bushes or shrubs." A tall hedge can also be made up of trees. Hedges consist of more than one shrub and have different uses. Hedges provide privacy screens, fences, visual boundaries, windbreaks and different shapes to add interest to landscaping. They are usually well-maintained with different spacing and pruning than shrubs.

An analytical pruning schedule for 2022-23 with frequent updates on the work already completed can be found here:

No pruning activities are taking place between March 1 and July 31. For more information please visit the DEFRA Website.

Grass cutting

The annual mowing schedule starts mid March and runs through until the end of November, depending on weather and ground conditions. It consists of five different rounds.

  • Open spaces in Loughborough, Hathern and Shepshed. This route includes Housing areas, small amenity areas including greens, allotments and play areas
  • Major open spaces in Loughborough and Shepshed. This route includes large open space, sports fields, Charnwood Water and large parks
  • All types of CBC managed land in villages only (excluding Hathern and Shepshed)
  • Mobile Crew, manage special sites such as bowling greens, maintenance of flower beds and wildlife sites

Please click on the appropriate document to find detailed information:

Weed control

The council will try and keep its open spaces and hard surfaces free from weeds. This includes car parks, fence lines, garage sites, drying areas on housing services land, mowing obstructions and paths.

In order to do this we spray two-three times a year, depending on the site and flowerbeds are weeded regularly throughout the growing season.

Problems with moss control are not part of the routine maintenance and will be done on request if deemed to be necessary. 

Watercourse Management

A watercourse is the channel that a flowing body of water follows. These include rivers, streams, anabranches and canals.We manage our watercourses in two ways: routine control and maintenance activities, including use of our legal powers and responsibilities, and strategic drainage activities.

Watercourses which the council are historically responsible for are maintained by our open spaces service provider Idverde. A schedule with frequent updates on the work already completed to watercourses (de-silt and maintain as required) can be found on the watercouse management page.

Last updated: Wed 9th November, 2022 @ 09:54