In article ,
Andy Hall writes:
On 11 Sep 2005 15:15:28 GMT, (Andrew
Gabriel) wrote:

Council appear to have sprayed a jet of some weed and grass killer
across my lawn when killing the weeds on the footpath. I don't suppose
there's any antidote, particularly now it shows up quite clearly?
Probably happened a couple of weeks ago -- I noticed an area last
week which wasn't very green and watered it. By this week, it's
very clear from the pattern of the dead area exactly what's happened,
a dead spray shaped area with a sharp cutoff caused by the gate post.
Also, it's dying at the same rate as the weeds on the pavement.

Andrew, I would suggest taking some photos immediately and then

Yes, I already did that.

speaking to the highways dept. at the council in terms of some

I'll start by asking them what it was they sprayed.
If it was Glyphosphate, I will try contacting Monsanto and
asking their advice on de-toxifying the ground. I know from
past experience grass won't grow again for around a year.
(I wonder if they do a GM-modified lawn grass seed? ;-)

compensation - especially as this is a fine grade lawn and is not
going to be cheap to fix. You can't just get any old grade of
replacement turf because the colours and species are unlikely to
match.

For patching after I raked out the moss last year, I used B&Q's
fine (no course/rye) grass seed, which blended in OK. It's really
too late in the year to seed grass now, and in any case, based on
my past experience, it won't grow in that area for a year.
Turf might have the same problem unless some depth of topsoil is
replaced first.

Unfortunately I don't have a high expectation that they have a proper
mechanism to address this kind of issue in terms of paying you the
fair market rate to fix it. Simple logic would suggest obtain two
quotes for a proper fix and send them the bill. However, as one TV
scifi once had as a famous line - "We are not programmed to respond in
that area" - i.e. not commercially minded.

I might also suggest they get their parks department to fix it,
which would probably be the cheapest option for them, if I could
trust them to do a good job.

Then you are faced with how much time do you want to spend on
recovering something from them.

Perhaps a call to the local press to see if they are short of a human
vs. big brother story, if it becomes necessary?

Yes. The more I think about this, the more it's ****ing me off.
I am one of the increasingly few people in the road who try to
maintain a front garden. Could just give up and concrete it all
over like nearly everyone else has.

--
Andrew Gabriel