There are now concerns about roadside grass being cut too much, in the wake of complaints about grass left uncut at the start of a new £25m Wiltshire Council contract.

After Balfour Beatty Living Places began its five-year deal on June 1, residents raised complaints about several issues, but most notably that grass was overgrown.

John Thomson, the deputy leader of Wiltshire Council and cabinet member responsible for highways, said the service was now up to speed and no new complaints were received in the last week.

He said: “If anything, I’m getting complaints we are cutting too much now.

“There are certain sections we have to cut for safety reasons, but I’d be keen to talk to the [parish and town] councils about other sections they’d prefer to be cut less.

“I’m satisfied they [the new services] are now running fine.

“What concerns me is that we don’t have a repeat of this, for example when the snow starts falling, we went gritting to be of the standard it should be.”