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Enville’s new fleet finance deal

March 4, 2020/in Machinery, News, Press Release/by Steve Mitchell

Enville’s new fleet finance deal: Founded in 1935 and considered one of the finest examples of heathland golf in the UK, Enville Golf Club near Stourbridge features the 18-hole Highgate and Lodge courses, with the former being used by the R&A in recent years for Regional Open Qualifying tournaments. It has also recently been announced […]

Council cutback challenges

March 4, 2020/in Industry News, News, Press Release/by External Source

Council cutback challenges: Council workers are maintaining enough grassland in Argyll and Bute to cover the entire area of Monaco – but sometimes struggling to be available to cut it. A report has revealed that two million square metres of open grassland space is maintained by the authority’s staff – equivalent to the size of […]

Enville’s new fleet finance deal

March 4, 2020/in Machinery, News, Press Release/by Steve Mitchell

Council cutback challenges

March 4, 2020/in Industry News, News, Press Release/by External Source

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Enville’s new fleet finance deal

March 4, 2020/in Machinery, News, Press Release/by Steve Mitchell

Enville’s new fleet finance deal: Founded in 1935 and considered one of the finest examples of heathland golf in the UK, Enville Golf Club near Stourbridge features the 18-hole Highgate and Lodge courses, with the former being used by the R&A in recent years for Regional Open Qualifying tournaments.

It has also recently been announced that Enville will host the R&A Girls’ U16 Amateur Championship for the first time, for three years from April 2021.

Enville’s new fleet finance deal

Enville’s course manager Andy Wood, who has been at the club for nearly three years, was previously at Robin Hood, Cosby and The Belfry Golf Clubs, so he knows his local dealer Farol Ltd well and has been using John Deere course maintenance equipment for over 20 years.

His avowed ambition is to produce two of the best courses in the Midlands for Enville’s members, guests and visitors, and in so doing to try to get the club as high as possible up the list of the top 100 golf clubs in England. The club has also invited five top golf course architects to tender for a master plan to take the course to the next level over the next five to 10 years. As part of this process, Andy has overseen a policy change to reduce the club’s reliance on capital purchases of new machinery with no real structured plan in place, other than a rolling programme with kit coming off operating leases needing replacement each year.

“I just felt that this was not a very sensible approach, for budgeting purposes in particular,” says Andy. “The club could be spending £50,000 one year and £100,000 the next, and this did not suit budgeting over a longer period. We therefore agreed a new budget for the next five to 10 years, combining a shorter operating lease for new mowers with a longer finance lease arrangement for the likes of tractors, which have a longer life expectancy, so that the club’s capital spend would be significantly reduced.”

All the main manufacturers were invited to tender for the demonstration and supply of individual machines for year one, including tractors, utility vehicles, leaf collectors and aerators, followed in year two by the cutting equipment. Each range was tested to see what fitted the courses’ and Andy’s needs best, followed by an assessment of service back-up and support, including product warranties, once the decisions on the choice of kit had been made.

“John Deere and Farol, with dealer salesman Jacob Shellis leading the way, ticked all the boxes,” says Andy. “Things like cut quality should be a given at this level. More important is that should any problems or issues arise, they get dealt with straight away and we’re not left stranded with broken down machines and unnecessary downtime.

“For me, it’s always been about building a good, sound relationship and trust in the supplier, its products and the dealer, and that people deliver on their promises, especially through the tender process. Farol has always supported me very well on the service side with warranty claims, tournament support, training programmes and the like. The John Deere Financial package was very favourable too, with competitive rates.

“With this new deal we’ve managed to rationalise the fleet and every bit of kit does the job I need it to. We’ve gone down from 122 machines and auxiliary pieces of equipment when I first came to 94, and we’ve saved on a lot of labour, time and repair costs. Among other things this has enabled us to invest £40,000 in a new machinery shed and a new seed and fertiliser store, so we’ve now got enough room to keep all the main kit and supplies secure and under cover.

“Being a heathland course built on very sandy soils, we’re fortunate in that we can stay open all year round and work on the course at any time of the year,” Andy adds. “This makes life a bit easier in the winter, but it also means that we require a good irrigation system in the spring and summer months, something the club also invested in last year.

“One of the most encouraging things has been our record income in 2019 from green fees, which is a great sign that things are moving in the right direction. Enville’s always had a good reputation, but hopefully the machinery, agronomic and other changes we’ve been making to the course over the last couple of years have contributed to this increase.”

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Council cutback challenges

March 4, 2020/in Industry News, News, Press Release/by External Source

Council cutback challenges: Council workers are maintaining enough grassland in Argyll and Bute to cover the entire area of Monaco – but sometimes struggling to be available to cut it.

A report has revealed that two million square metres of open grassland space is maintained by the authority’s staff – equivalent to the size of 257 Hampden Park football pitches.

It also says that parts of the area have not had their grass cut to specifications as determined by the council, with competing demands including burials and bin collections.

The budget available for grass cutting has also been reduced by more than 15% since the 2013/14 financial year.

A report on the issue will be discussed at a meeting of the council’s environment, development and infrastructure committee on Thursday.

The document, written by Kirsty Flanagan, the council’s executive director with responsibility for roads and infrastructure, said: “Over the course of last year there were a number of service delivery issues in Cowal, and to a lesser extent across the wider council area, where grassland maintenance had not been carried out to the pre-determined specification.

“This was due in part to a limited level of resilience within the team, an ageing demographic in the workforce, and a number of sickness absences, some of which were medium to long term.

“With the exception of Cowal, the rest of the council area was generally delivered to the specification, although the same limited level of resilience exists across all the council area.

“The current specification has been formed over time, and originated from historic grass cutting schedules that were in place prior to Argyll and Bute being established as a local authority in 1996.

“In recent times those historic schedules have been amended through a succession of budget reductions.”

The report states that all sports fields in the area are scheduled to be cut 21 times a year, with other facilities, such as amenity areas and cemeteries, subject to different specifications by area. These vary from 12 in Bute to 17 for Lorn and Lomond.

She continued: “Reducing the number of cuts any further is not considered to be achievable in terms of delivering meaningful savings.

“Fewer cuts mean the grass is longer when it is cut, so the time to complete the tasks increase and the strain on equipment is greater.

“This would lead to more equipment down-time and greater maintenance and/or replacement costs.

“The current service standards are achievable within the existing budget, staffing and machinery framework. However, resources are so closely matched to those standards that there is limited, if any, resilience to respond to issues which inevitably arise.

“Decisions are having to be made on a regular basis to prioritise what work can be carried out with the available resource.

“It is not unusual for our operational supervisors and managers to be faced with competing demands, including digging graves/burying the dead, collecting bins, making safe potentially dangerous defects and grass cutting.

“Inevitably, but unfortunately, grass cutting often has to be left.

“Last year, in one of the administrative areas, there was an unusual increase in burials over a period which meant that very little grass was cut.

“Although the provision of a grass cutting service is a non-statutory function, the effective maintenance of public open spaces supports the economic development and growth of the area both in terms of attracting tourists as well as new residents.

“Providing and suitably maintaining sporting facilities also supports another strategic priority – allowing people to live active, healthier and independent lives.”

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Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Enville’s new fleet finance deal

Council cutback challenges

Enville’s new fleet finance deal

Council cutback challenges

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Enville’s new fleet finance deal

Council cutback challenges

Council cutback challenges: Council workers are maintaining enough grassland in Argyll and Bute to cover the entire area of Monaco – but sometimes struggling to be available to cut it.

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