Municipal Council Chooses Tractor for Safety on Slopes

Graham Owen is the park’s operations manager at Southend-on-Sea Borough Council. Southend-on-Sea is a popular resort town in the southeast of England. Southend is home to the longest pleasure pier in the world, stretching 1.34 miles from shore. It is a big destination spot for visitors all over Europe, therefore it’s crucial that Graham and his grounds maintenance team manage the parks well and efficiently so visitors want to return.

Graham describes where the Ventrac plays a crucial part in their parks maintenance program. Features of the town like the Southend Cliff Gardens and Leigh Cliffs are very steep, undulating seaside bluffs that offer spectacular views of the sea. Graham has discovered that the specially designed Ventrac 4500 with finish deck is just the machine to maintain the cliffs. He says they also use the machine on main highways and central reservations that run through the middle of the town as well, saving them time with the versatility of one machine.

Where they previously used pedestrian rotary machines on the banks and hand trimmers on the cliff sides, it became apparent that this was not efficient nor the safest choice for his staff.
Graham says the time savings was an important part of his decision to purchase the Ventrac but what really made the difference was assuring the safety and well-being of his operators. The low center of gravity of the Ventrac makes him and his staff feel much more comfortable operating and doing the work properly, in a safe environment.

Of additional importance, Graham liked the comfort of operating the Ventrac. The ease of using the patented S.D.L.A hand controls and the comfort of effortless steering are what make the Ventrac so enjoyable to operate. Ultimately, Graham wanted to invest in a piece of equipment his staff enjoyed using and wouldn’t just sit in the shed. He’s happy with how the Ventrac fits into the seaside town’s maintenance program and he wouldn’t hesitate to recommend a Ventrac to others who are in need of versatility and safety from a machine.


Products featured in this video:

VENTRAC 4500:
FINISH MOWERS: HQ680



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My name's Graham Owen. I'm the parks operations manager at Southend-On-Sea Borough Council. We manage all the park's operations work within the Southend. Its a seaside resort. It's a big destination now. We do get visitors from all over Europe coming into Southend now. So our parks and open spaces are well used not just for the seafront and the pier but also the areas along there. With the work we do with the ventrac we've got various areas that we work with. We've got our Southend cliffs. Lee cliffs which are very steep and undulating. But we also use the machine on our main highways and Central Reservations that run through the middle of the town as well. Health and safety is important you know with the banks and working on the cliffs was sort of a two-week cycle just purely a foot slope right the way through. So it was quite dangerous. We used to use pedestrian rotary machines on the banks. Just the time saved was an important part of our decision-making but really that the health and safety of the staff and also the comfort because the worst thing you can do is go off on yourself as a manager and buy a piece of gear and have it put in the back of a shed and not used because they don't like the machine. With the low center of gravity of the machine that we've got now the staff feel more comfortable. I feel more secure but my staff are out there doing the work properly in a safe environment. The finish that we have with the decks that we use much better than just the normal pedestrian machines and also we got the option that's striping out of the banks and everything else takes no more time to do it so it's it gives a good feel to the area. So yeah it does get noticed. It's one of the machines I would not hesitate to recommend to anybody. Especially if they've got the opportunity to use you know other attachments to keep you working 12 months a year for them because it's an excellent piece of machinery. With anything there's a tangible sort of understanding there that if you keep your park areas and your highway areas looking neat and tidy you know people come back because they appreciate you know how the areas are looking. So you know all in all with all the machinery all the staff that we use very competent and do a really good job.

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