Standee wrote:
to be fair, the individual concerned probably hasn't trained as a groundsman, they are probably more used to looking after geranium plants and mowing the grass!
you're dead right Standee - hit the nail on the head mate !
what usually happens with council workers is that they are not personally trained as groundsmen/women but have a basic qualification in gardening and is then seconded to a certain taem in a certain area - where I work now (for a private company sub-contracted ou to the city council) in Limoges there are five different teams of gardiners one for each of the four points N,S,E,W plus a team for the city centre - every few years they are shuffled around to different parts of the city.
The guy that was the in charge of one of the areas became head greenkeeper of the local municipal golf course,without any formal training and a few years later was transferred as head of a team in a different part of the city looking after the maintenence of the parks etc
He was/is a good man but has no formal training in any particular area - this will be the same system in Perpignan with I suspect no one one in particular having had any really specialised training in this kind of maintenence.
Problem is,because he or she is a government employee it's almost impossible to sack him or her just get that person transferred to another part of the city.