Report a litter or grounds maintenance issue

You can report various litter, street cleaning or ground maintenance issues in your local area using the online forms at the bottom of this page.

Find out more about the different types of issue you can report:

Street cleansing

The cleaning of West Northamptonshire is important to our residents, visitors and businesses.

Our aim is to:

• clean the town centres and busy shopping areas to a high standard frequently to ensure a clean environment at all times
• clean streets in residential areas on a rotational schedule
• remove dead animals, drug paraphernalia, broken glass, and offensive graffiti from streets and open spaces as soon as operationally possible

Report an area for cleaning

If any public area is badly littered, or if you see any fly tipping, or bins overflowing please tell us about it. You can report a variety of problems, quickly and easily using our online forms below.

Clearance of leaves

We carry out leaf removal across West Northants Council owned land and adopted highways on a schedule, which usually runs between November and January. To ensure we are able to visit all areas, please allow us time to complete their schedule before reporting leaves for removal.

If you do see an area that has been missed after this time you can use our online forms below. Do not report tree issues on this form.

Grounds maintenance

Hedge pruning

Hedge and shrubbery pruning takes place on a rotational schedule across the West Northamptonshire area in the autumn and winter, once the grass cutting service has stopped.

The only work carried out during the spring and summer is anything identified as a health and safety issue. This is due to DEFRA guidelines on nesting birds, which prohibit our contractor doing any work which may disturb them during this period.

Health and safety issues include:

• obstruction of a footpath or highway
• obstruction of doors, windows, or emergency exit

Each report is reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Any work not identified as a health and safety issue will be added to the winter maintenance schedule.

Grass cutting

Grass cutting takes place on a rotational schedule across the West Northamptonshire Council area during the spring and summer months, after hedge and shrubbery pruning has stopped. No grass cutting takes place during the autumn and winter, except sport pitches.

Flush of grass growth: This generally happens twice per year usually around late March into early April and, August into September (Also well known as a ‘Indian Summer’). Due to climatic conditions, the grass grows at a very accelerated rate:

• at the beginning of the year (March/April), sunshine followed by prolonged rain and the winter climate
• at the end of the year, (August/September) rain followed by prolonged sunshine

This promotes and stimulates the accelerated growth which is driven each year by the climatic conditions. Depending on any variants to the weather, this will in turn impact and vary grass growth.

In general you would not notice the first flush or accelerated growth, due to the grass growing in winter ground conditions, however at times if we have wetter conditions into May followed by warm dry weather this maybe far more noticeable.

Our method of mowing is a cut and drop process. Our contractor maintains a vast amount of verges, parks and open spaces and it is not feasible to collect all cuttings. The industrial machinery which is used is not equipped to collect cuttings like a domestic mower. Also by leaving them behind you give them the chance to decompose, releasing water and nutrients back into the soil. This helps grass grow greener, healthier, and thicker.

Maintaining parks, gardens and public open space

West Northamptonshire Council, its contractors and partners are responsible for the general management and day-to-day maintenance of the councils parks and gardens.

They have a dedicated team of staff who pride themselves on delivering a high standard of maintenance such as:

• grass areas
• litter collection
• flower and shrub beds
• hedges
• playgrounds
• outdoor sports facilities

Some areas of public open space may be managed and operated by partners such as Town and Parish Councils, please use the report it forms below to report any service requests.

See Trolleywise if you wish to report an abandoned shopping trolley.

Last updated 12 October 2023