You may have noticed that there is an issue with the landscape maintenance at Little Meadow.
Craig Dunkley, who took on the job at the beginning of the year, hasn’t been on-site for almost three weeks now and despite numerous attempts by our managing agent, Tim Townsend, with phone messages, emails and texts, he has been unable to make contact. We are obviously very concerned that something may have happened beyond Craig’s control.
We are fully aware of how Little Meadow looks at the moment so please bear with us while we continue our efforts. We may have to find another contractor urgently if we are unsuccessful.
Update 21st June 2024:
Still no success in contacting Craig. It’s uncharacteristic and quite worrying.
We are urgently seeking somebody to deal with the immediate problem of giving the grass a good cut throughout. That will give us time to find a new landscape maintenance business to take on the regular visits we need in future.
The problem we are finding is that all the local businesses we have contacted are already fully committed in this peak growing season and therefore they cannot give Little Meadow the time it needs, either as a one-off or on an ongoing basis. If you have any useful suggestions please let the directors know immediately via the website contact form, or email Tim Townsend direct: tim@alfm.co.uk.
Update 27th June 2024
Thanks to everybody who has provided Tim with the names of possible businesses to carry out our landscape maintenance – your suggestions are very much appreciated. All of these have been contacted and unfortunately most have said they are already fully committed and therefore unable to help.
However, we are relieved to say that we now have some possible leads and we are pursuing these urgently. While the longer term arrangements still need to be finalised, you should see the grass finally being cut next Tuesday 2nd July by a local gardener, Jason Hammond, who has agreed to help us out. It may not all be done at once, but he’ll do his best to complete the work as quickly possible while working around his existing commitments.
Obviously we’ll continue to provide updates about this pressing issue.
Update 3rd July 2024
Yesterday, Jason Hammond came as promised and he made a good start.
Considering he carried out the work without his team (we were told in advance that they would be working elsewhere) and so it was just him with a standard petrol mower and a strimmer he made reasonable progress. The front of the estate is looking a little better and the green open space and playground is nicely cut. He worked hard, but as expected he did not have time to cut all the grass nor to trim any bushes or extract any weeds, so many areas are still looking overgrown.
He’s returning as arranged next Tuesday 9th July to carry on and hopes then to have others with him to assist.
Tim (our managing agent) who is working closely with the directors, continues to make progress with the difficult task of finding a permanent replacement for Craig. As always we will keep everybody updated here.
Update 17th July 2024
We now have five quotes to consider and a final decision will be made within the next couple of days.
A big “thank-you” to those who provided the names of possible contractors and also we appreciate everyone’s patience while we have been working to find somebody suitable.
Jason Hammond has agreed that he can come back on Tuesday 23rd July to cut some grass because it’ll probably take a couple of weeks to get a new contractor on board, whichever it may be.
It’ll take a while to get Little Meadow’s general appearance back to where it should be, but we’ll get there as soon as we can!