OVERSEAS conflicts, phone hacking, celebrity miscreants, England being dumped out of the World Cup, all receive wall-to-wall coverage in the nationals, but what really gets the juices flowing for millions of people are issues much closer to home.

Pot holes and grass cutting being two that regularly fill the pages of the local press.

In 2012, Balfour Beatty Living Places (BBLP) were awarded a £150 million contract to maintain the roads and open spaces in Wiltshire, but  such has been the torrent of complaints from local people about overgrown play areas, hedgerows and verges this year that Wiltshire Council is withholding payments to BBLP over the standard of its grasscutting service.

Without siding with the contractor, this Spring and Summer has probably seen the strongest grass-growing season in years with warm conditions and  excessive rain in the winter. That itself will have played havoc with any pre-planned grass-cutting schedules.

However this has not stopped a senior official from Wiltshire Council issuing an apology for ‘the overall failure of the grass-cutting in the County this year’, adding, ‘BBLP are drinking in the last chance saloon’.

His words might have had more weight had not a local resident contacted a local paper demanding to know why the grass was being cut once again in front of County Hall – and on a Saturday – whilst verges in surrounding roads were still looking a mess!

It might be an old-fashioned value, but civic pride is still alive and well throughout the country. People like to have their city, town and village looking good, not only for local residents but for those who visit or drive through – and unkempt grass a key element of that.

Meanwhile in Bristol, the City Council admit that they do not have enough money to maintain the standard of the 5,500 acres of parks and open spaces – and they are asking for volunteers to mow, trim, weed, cut and maintain the grass, shrubs and trees.

The council’s grounds maintenance contract is coming to an end and the council is considering taking it back in-house – but like all local authorities it has funding issues.

Hence the proposal to enlist a Dad’s Army of volunteers armed with mowers, trimmers and chainsaws to get stuck in.

I can already hear the Council’s ‘Elf and Safety team licking their lips at that . .