Thanks to Diana for sending me this picture. A community minded individual has provided seats at the bus stop on the Vineyard.
Anne sent me a picture of a rusting postbox off Preston Road,
and some of the weeds also growing along Preston Road.
She wanted to know how to get anything done about them to improve the look of the town.
When we get a sprinkling of snow we all don fleece and wellies and shovel and swet until we’ve made a pathway or cleared our drive not necessarily to make safe passage but more often to be seen as doing ones bit for the community, strange then that something as unsightly as weeds and rubbish we expect the authorities to act on? I regularly clean a 100 meter stretch of kerb/gutter outside my house and do a weekly litter pick. Surely there’s some community spirited folk there who could do the same ?
We do Captainkaos but there is a limit to what people can do. As the previous post. At one time OCC used to keep areas pristine and men would regularly come around with weed killer and maintain areas. When my son came to visit me he was appalled at the neglect. He said it made the area look very run down. OCC said that there budget has been cut and they no longer maintain vegetation in areas. As I said our MP voted for a massive 25% further cut to council budgets this year. We do wonder in South Abingdon sometimes if we lived in a more affluent part of the town whether these problems would be addressed.
It seems main thoroughfares get some cleaning but side roads do not, I’ve reduced my own efforts to keeping my own property clean, de-weeded and pest free. I don’t have a brown bin so would have to drive any street vegetation to Drayton, I am no longer prepared to do this. I feel that I am not getting a suitable return for the amount of Council Tax I pay and have adjusted what I do in return because of this, I could complain but fear that ‘budget cuts’ have given them the perfect excuse for not carrying out the basics. I believe that as gulley cleaning is no longer carried out should my property be damaged as a result I or my insurance company could pursue OCC for negligence, equally should my car be damaged due to the poor state of the roads I will do everything possible to recoup costs from them and urge everyone else to also follow this path.
Same as I used to do Badger. I do the minimum now, and only take my own green waste (that cannot be composted), to Drayton,
As an aside my wheelie bin wasn’t emptied the other week so I rang Biffa to find out why? They said it was because my rubbish had been placed inside black bin bags and they no longer accept rubbish placed in black bin linners even if they’re in the wheelie bin !
I contacted the VHWDC who put my request to OCC, and they stated that they do not have the funding to do it.
Weeds …….. we clear outside our house, but the estate I live on is looking a mess with weeds growing from kerbs which have to be hopped over when crossing roads. It’s dangerous on some roads around Abingdon too as the weeds obscure oncoming traffic.