BURNHAM Town Council will not pay the district council for grass cutting until the service improves, it has been announced.

At a town council meeting last week, it was agreed councillors wanted a detailed breakdown of what they were paying for before handing over any cash.

Last summer, the town council threatened to demand refunds from the district after upkeep of the town’s parks and verges was thought to be unacceptably poor.

Eventually, they decided against the move, with Maldon District Council offering to carry the service out free of charge.

The town council believed this would be until April, but the district has now said the offer was for three months.

This has led to Burnham Town Council deciding to not to pay for the services until it gets the breakdown of costs, or the service improves.

Town mayor, Ron Pratt said: “It is not a blanket refusal to pay, more of a delay while we try and further understand what we are being charged for. There was a problem last year with staffing shortages after people left the district council.

“The council struggled to keep up with that and as a result our cemeteries and verges look terrible.

“We went to the officers and they agreed there would be no charge.

“The dispute now is whether that meant no charge for that quarter, or for the year.

“We want to know how many times they came down to cut they grass and how much each one is costing us.”

The decision is backed by residents, who feel the service being provided is not good enough.

Dennis Price, of Hornet Way, said: “I fully support the town council in this, and I think most people down here would.

“Burnham is paying Maldon for a service that they are not providing to a good enough standard. Nothing has improved, little or no maintenance has been carried out on the park or other areas.

“We can’t do it ourselves. We don’t have the staff or the equipment to get it done.”

Richard Holmes, director of customers and community, said: “While we acknowledge that there were some issues at the start of the year due to staff shortages, these were resolved.

“We have not received any complaints about the service which is being delivered to them currently and we are always happy to work with Burnham Town Council to resolve any issues which may arise.”