9 May 2023

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The Garden City is renowned for its beautiful deciduous trees – and that comes at a price during the autumn leaf fall season.

Christchurch City Council contractors are going all out to make sure the city’s footpaths, gutters and sumps are clear of autumn leaves.

But after wet weather and wild winds have seen leaves falling more often and earlier this year, their plea to residents is, please be patient.

“When you’re out and about, it’s clear to see there is a lot of leaf litter around. We cannot stress enough that contractors are pulling out all the stops to make sure these are swept away as quickly as possible,” City Streets Maintenance Manager Steve Guy says.

“However, we’ve had reports of abuse to the staff working on the ground, which isn’t good enough.

“Our contractors are working to clear the leaves as quickly as they can and while we certainly appreciate residents’ frustrations, it is equally frustrating for staff to clean streets, gutters and sumps only for a southerly change to blow through and 24 hours later we’re back where we’re started.

“Please bear with us. Our teams are out there working as hard and as fast as they can to clean up tree-lined streets right across the city, and they shouldn’t be subjected to abuse.”

Mr Guy says contractors have increased the number of sweeper trucks across the city and now have capacity for at least five trucks per street. Staff are targeting the streets that are most impacted by heavy leaf fall.  

"Residents can help their community by removing leaves from their gardens and putting them into their green bins. Please don't wait for the crews to clear the leaves from the streets and then empty leaves from private gardens back into the road. This has a significant impact on our ability to clear other streets, and may result in it taking us longer to get back to those streets again."

If residents are concerned about leaf litter, they can contact the Council's Contact Centre on 03 941 8999 or use the Snap Send Solve app.