John O'Connor Grounds Maintenance add new equipment for East Herts District Council contract

Peter Driverin Local Authority

John O'Conner Grounds Maintenance, operators of contracts throughout the South of England, Greater London and the Midlands, has upgraded their fleet of mowers working for East Herts District Council

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The new fleet of mowers from Ransomes Jacobsen, worth in excess of £200,000, was delivered by longstanding dealer Bartram Mowers at the beginning of this season.

The fleet comprises five Ransomes Parkway 3 triplex cylinder mowers and a Ransomes MP493, the latest wide area batwing rotary mower from the Ipswich-based manufacturer.

John O'Conner won the East Herts contract back in 2007 and over the past eight years has helped the Council win numerous Green Flag awards for the parks and open spaces across the district.

Keith Warden is the Senior Contract Manager responsible for the East Herts contract. Commenting on the new machines he said,
"We have no complaints whatsoever; these are excellent machines and have performed really well in their first season. It's been a long season compared to last year and the machines have worked hard.

"The swing-out centre unit on the Parkways is a great innovation and makes maintenance, of this often difficult to access unit, easy. The MP493 is a highly productive mower, but it is also very comfortable for the operator, which is a significant factor when they are out for eight hours a day."

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Neil Cain, Operations Director added, "Before purchasing these machines we held a workshop with a selection of managers and supervisors within our business to look at the specific benefits of machines from different manufacturers. In this case, for our East Herts contract we selected the Ransomes machines as being best suited for the maintenance regime agreed with the Council.

"Throughout the negotiations and following the purchase, Adrian Kersey and his team at Bartram Mowers in Ipswich have provided excellent service. They are a very professional dealership and we have a very good working relationship with them, which as anyone in this business knows, is vitally important."

For more information, visit www.jacobsen.com.

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