A HOUSING association has said it will do more to improve the standard of grounds maintenance in a Haverhill cul-de-sac, after one resident complained about bushes growing 6ft high.

Peter Herd said he was fed up with the failure of Jephson Housing East to tidy up an area of bushes bordering his house in Forest Glade, where he owns the property he has lived in for the last 15 years.

Mr Herd, 62, said: “I would like someone to come up here and look at the disgusting way the bushes are kept. They’ve not been cut for three months.

“All I keep getting is that they are in hand and the contractors will be looking after it.

“Our garden wall is about six feet tall and the bushes at the side are over the top of the wall.”

Paul Crow, housing manager for Jephson Housing East, said he had personally visited the site three months ago, when everything was fine, and was surprised a problem had arisen because the company had ‘rigorous inspection measures.’

Mr Crow also said Jephson Housing paid St Edmundsbury Council contractors to manage the grounds maintenance, although it is Jephson’s responsibility to ensure work is up to the required standard, and said Mr Herd’s complaint about the overgrown bushes had already been noted by the area housing officer.

He said: “It had already been identified by the housing officer on July 18, and the housing officer instructed the council to do the works.”

Speaking on Tuesday, Mr Crow said contractors from St Edmundsbury Council were due to carry out the work in Forest Glade yesterday.

steve.barton@haverhillecho.com