Grass-cutting teams are back out across Shrewsbury after an unusually dry summer was followed by warm, wet conditions that have seen grass growth accelerate rapidly.

Shrewsbury Town Council’s Recreation and Greenspace team has resumed mowing across the town after grass cutting was scaled back during the prolonged dry spell.

While mowing would normally begin to wind down during September, the recent change in conditions has resulted in grass growing extremely quickly, meaning the Council expects cutting to continue further into autumn this year.

The dry period also gave the team an opportunity to bring forward other maintenance work that would normally take place later in the year. Staff carried out additional path tidying and hedge cutting across recreation grounds and open spaces, while verge-cutting staff were redeployed to the Old Cemetery Area, where work has now been completed.

The team has also been preparing for the town’s sports fixtures, including line marking football pitches for the start of the season. School hedge cutting has also been completed, with mowing at school sites restarting as conditions allowed.

Shrewsbury Town Council say the contrasting conditions seen this year – from prolonged heat and dry weather to warm conditions combined with rainfall – are being taken into account as it continues to consider the impact of changing seasons and climate change on the management of Shrewsbury’s extensive green spaces. This includes looking at how planting schemes, grass management and wider maintenance programmes can be adapted to remain resilient to increasingly variable weather conditions