St Edmundsbury Borough Council have recently invested in a Redexim Verti-Drain 7626, from Charterhouse Turf Machinery, to help look after sports surfaces throughout the borough.
Landscape Supervisor Andrew Cobbold, together with his team of Landscape Operatives, are in charge of the maintenance of these amenity areas.
Andrew took delivery of the 7626 from Tomlinsons in July 2016. “We previously used a contractor to help us fulfil our commitment to aerating the sports pitches at least twice a year. He also used a Charterhouse Verti-Drain and it was evident from the work he carried out what a great bit of kit it was.”
The decision was made to purchase the Verti-Drain to enable the council to aerate all of their own pitches as well as having the kit available to conduct extra external work thereby generating additional income.
“With this is mind we went for the large 7626 model, complimenting our John Deere tractors, which will not only do a great job and cope with deep aeration on our pitches, but will allow us to tackle any jobs that might be put our way” says Andrew.
A number of key elements of the 7626 model helped Andrew justify the expenditure. “Firstly the weight of the unit is a big plus – it can really get to grips with heavy compaction. Pretty soon after we bought the machine we used it on a field which had hosted a fair. After one pass you could feel the difference underfoot between the areas aerated and those that weren’t.”
Another major plus point for Andrew is the ease of use offered by the hydraulically controlled roller and depth adjustment. This combined with the fact the 7626 can be fitted with 3/4” or 1” tines offers Andrew the flexibility to deal with a variety of applications.
“So far we’ve aerated all the Borough pitches in the Bury St Edmunds and Haverhill areas. The 7626 has efficiently dealt with the tasks at hand and we look forward to using it in the coming season to help improve the playability of our pitches.”
