The council’s recreation manager, Erik van der Spek, said the council had received 12 complaints about the quality of maintenance since Downer took over the council’s parks maintenance contract.
The three-year deal was awarded to Downer this year after being held by the council-owned company, Whitestone Contracting, since 1991.
Mr van der Spek said the 12 complaints received was "probably only slightly" above average, and the near record rainfall of 144mm recorded in Oamaru in November was a contributing factor.
He said council staff met Downer to discuss the "less than desirable maintenance" and the two sides agreed that two weeks would be used as a measuring stick to get the maintenance programme back on track.
"It’s something that has happened with previous contractors in the past.
"Come spring, there’s always a lot of growth going on. And it’s always a struggle for contractors to keep up with that amount of growth, particularly when you have had the rain that we have had falling.
"We want things to be tidy for Christmas, the holiday period, so we said ‘OK, we’ve got two weeks to work with, let’s see what we can do’."
Mr van der Spek said most of the complaints were about the quality of maintenance at the Oamaru Public Gardens.
A Downer spokeswoman could not be reached for comment last night.
