Adopt A Verge
Residents who choose to adopt their verge will be able to choose from a list of locally endemic plant species which provide habitat and are drought tolerant hardy natives which are low growing and require little in the way of pruning or maintenance and are therefore suited to the street environment as verge plantings.
To provide residents with all of the required information, the following guidelines were supplied to residents. They have been designed to avoid problems that have occurred in the past when residents have taken it upon themselves to plant out their verge. The following guidelines will allow for the plantings to be undertaken in a manner which still allows Council to retain control of the Council owned verge and avoid a number of potential problems caused by inappropriate plantings such as plantings growing out and blocking access to footpaths and roadways, plantings which have spikes and sharp leaves which can injure pedestrians and vehicles and the planting of weed species and trees which damage both the environment and surrounding infrastructure.
Set out below are the proposed Adopt-a-Verge programme planting guidelines:
- For a street to be considered for the adopt a verge programme the footpaths must be a minimum of 2.2 metres measured from the kerb to the property boundary. This will allow for a 1.2 metre footpath to be constructed and a minimum of a 1 metre planting area.
- Only residences where the owner agrees with the guidelines and are willing to participate in the programme will be planted out.
- Species planted must be limited to those appearing on the Adopt-a-Verge plant list provided by Council. Council retains the right to remove any plant that does not appear on this list.
- Plantings must include adequate access to road and footpath by means of a one metre gap in the planting every three metres along the length of the planting.
- Plantings must be maintained by the residents by means of pruning to avoid access problems for pedestrians using footpaths and vehicle-users accessing and parking vehicles.
- Plantings must be regularly weeded by the residents to maintain appearance and avoid the spread of weeds to neighbouring verges and gardens.
- Council will provide mulch to the residents as and when required to assist with the suppression of weeds and the retention of soil moisture.
- Council retains the right to remove and replace native verge plantings with turf if maintenance requirements are not met by the participating resident.
- In addition to the general guidelines above, Council retains the right to include site-specific conditions as necessary.
For a list of Native Plants for Verges see 
List of Native Plants for Verges (17.47kB)
I would like to have the grass removed and plant out the verge in front of my property. How can I do this?
If your area is suitable for this treatment Council will carry out the planting on the proviso that the residents will then maintain these plantings in a manner which will not obstruct the footpath access or affect sight distances for pedestrian and vehicle safety.
Contact Council's Citizens Service Centre on 93679222 with your details and a Council Officer will contact you and arrange to meet on-site and see if your footpath is suitable for this treatment.
I would like to have a section of the concrete/asphalt footpath removed and plant out this area in front of my property. How can I do this?
Council does not provide adopt-a-verge in concrete and asphalt footpaths to individual properties.
This can however be installed when Council undertakes footpath upgrading as part of the yearly Footpath Improvement Programme.
When your street is listed for footpath improvements, Council, as part of the yearly footpath improvement programme carries out consultation with the residents on the type of treatment that will be installed.
If possible, Council will install grass verge or native plantings as part of these works. If the owners of the properties would like to have their verges planted back with turf or if they would like to have the verge planted with native grasses, groundcovers and low growing shrubs as part of the Adopt-A-Verge Programme they can nominate this at this time.
Contact Council's Citizens Service Centre on 93679222 with your details and a Council Officer will contact you and let you know when your street is programmed for footpath upgrading.