Autumn leaves blanket city in gold

The striking gold of autumn leaves covering the footpaths and parks in the city signals the beginning of the autumn clean up for Christchurch City Council contractors.

The picturesque leaves are something of a beautiful nuisance for the Council, requiring endless hours of raking and street cleaning, and work to keep sumps and channels clear, particularly given recent rain events.

Christchurch City Council Road Maintenance Manager Mark Pinner said Autumn leaves always bought new challenges to contractors. 

City Care worker Pera Brown clears Autumn leaves in Cathedral Square.

“Sometimes picturesque, the leaves present undesired consequences if left unchecked. The Council works to keep streets clear so that drains work effectively, so that water can flow to the sumps where it is intended, and so that people can see where kerbs are when parking, for example,” Mr Pinner said.

“Council supervisors and our contractors check tree-lined streets around the city at this time of year, particularly known areas where leaf drop is more problematic. If leaves are building up, such that they are into or above the footpath, the streets are programmed to be swept by a road sweeper truck within a few days. This work is in addition to our normal street sweeping.”

Mr Pinner said residents could help their community by removing leaves from the street outside their houses and putting them in their red or green bin. He urged people not to move leaves on to the berms as they can't be reached by sweepers or simply get blown away again.

“Typically at this time of year there are also more heavy rain events, which coupled with the leaves exacerbates the issue. Our contractors check sumps in areas which are prone to localised flooding, and carry out pre-rain and post-rain works to make sure that sumps and nearby channels are clear. They are on stand-by to respond to any problems during the event as they were just last week.”

Botanic Gardens Operations Team Leader Bede Nottingham said deciduous trees such as oak, maple, beech and sycamore shed the leaves which needed to be cleared before they piled up and damaged the grass.

"It's an extremely high workload in the Gardens at this time of year; we have to devote two to three hours a day in the peak of the leaf fall just to cleaning up the leaves. It's a huge job - it's phenomenal the amount that comes down."

Most of the leaves are taken by truck to a stockpile, a mountainous heap of leaves in South Hagley Park that has to be regularly turned and left to compost for up to two years before it can be returned to the Gardens as a high quality leaf mulch underneath trees and in borders.

Mr Nottingham said home gardeners could leave some leaves at the back of garden borders to break down and add to the soil, or put them in their compost.

If residents are concerned about leaf litter they can contact the council's Customer Call Centre on 03 941 8999 and the issue will be investigated within five working days or sooner.