A housing company has apologised after numerous grassed areas it is responsible for went uncut, leading to complaints from residents.

Beyond Housing admitted the maintenance of its green spaces in Redcar and Cleveland “had not been acceptable” and blamed a contractor it had hired to do the work as not meeting its specifications.

Lynne Collins, a Beyond tenant, who lives in Blakey Close, Redcar, said: “I have lived here nearly ten years and it has never been allowed to get to this state.

“I have grass that is nearly four feet high on the outside of my garden fence.

“It has to have been missed at least two times at least, maybe three.

“I have never seen anything like this, I really haven’t.”

Mrs Collins said her daughter Louise was 5ft 6ins tall and the grass “comes past her knees”.

She said: “My front and back and side view from my house is awful, it really isn’t right.

“It’s really bad, disgraceful.”

The 60-year-old said she usually got her back garden cut also, but claimed staff told her they could not remove a table and chairs to do so and would have to cut round them.

The Northern Echo: An area of overgrown grass near Lynne Collins houseAn area of overgrown grass near Lynne Collins house (Image: UGC)

She said: “Health and safety apparently.

“I thought, how am I supposed to move the table and chairs, I am disabled I can’t do it, and they did, they just cut round it.”

A former employee at Beyond Housing told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the firm historically had an in-house grounds maintenance team, which was supplemented each year with temporary seasonal recruits.

But a decision was taken to outsource the service to a private contractor so when this year’s grass cutting season began in March new arrangements – which have proved inadequate – were in place.

The former employee said it appeared the contractor hadn’t recruited sufficient staff and was “failing miserably” to cut grass, shrubs and bushes, adding: “Some of the areas they are responsible for haven’t had a cut at all this year, whereas areas the council does are on their second or third cut.

“Once you let it get that long it takes the teams a massive amount of time to get round.”

In a statement David Chadwick, director of property services at Beyond Housing, said: “Delays to the maintenance of our green spaces have not been acceptable and we apologise to customers affected.

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 “The contractor recently appointed has not met our specifications for timely, quality grass cutting.

“We have requested an immediate statement of apology, along with a detailed schedule to complete the cutting by the end of next week.

“We have made it clear that the level of service delivered to date is well below the standards we require and our customers expect.”