Torfaen County Borough Council in South East Wales has purchased five Ransomes MP653 batwing rotary mowers for the new grass cutting season.
Steve Horseman has been the street scene manager at the council for 32 years, and is responsible for all grounds maintenance, street cleaning and green spaces. 75 members of staff are employed in the street scenes department and together they work to maintain the 12 x 9-mile area.
“Torfaen is a borough with lots of green, open spaces," Steve said. "The terrain is mountainous with many banks and inclines, which was a big factor to take into consideration when purchasing this latest machinery.
"Features such as Tilt Sensor Technology (TST) were particularly welcome as the safety of our operators is paramount“We spent a lot of time testing different machines to find out how each one coped in different areas, and the MP653 came out on top. The MP is the next generation of batwing rotary mowers; it is built for the road- everything about the machine has been geared towards our specific requirements.”
Torfaen used to operate out-front rotary mowers in smaller areas, and tractors with 4.8m rotary decks on larger areas of land, but are now able to use the MP653 to maintain both small and larger areas using the independently operated decks. The MP653 has the widest width of cut in its class of 3.5m, and the narrowest transport width in its class of 1.65m.
“We have found that the MP653 is extremely versatile and adaptable, and it is able to manoeuvre around objects very easily which is an obvious advantage,” Steve continued. “During the demonstration process, we placed an emphasis on usability and comfort because the operator is the one who will be using the machines. Again, the MP653 came out on top, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive since completing operator training carried out by Ransomes recently.
“Our local dealer, Keith Morgan Mowers Ltd has been very efficient throughout the entire process. The level of service and back-up support has been brilliant, and I feel very confident that we will receive the level of care we require in order to provide the best possible street scenes service throughout Torfaen.”
