To be upset our town is so run down now?

Same here in deprived yorkshire town. The council used to have a team of street cleaners who would do the town centre and our road as we are central but this was supplemented by local litter picking volunteers, now it's only the volunteers left which would be OK but the litter has increased (literally take aways and picnics on our street chucked out of the windows, nitrous oxide containers regularly and vape/drug paraphernalia daily) which is bad but largely manageable.. what has really got to me recently is the dog shit. Someone clearly walks their dog up and down our road purely to shit and doesn't clear it up. It could be more than one person but it's all in a line so I suspect not. I refuse to pick it up and it's not something the council collect so it regularly gets to the point of having an entire row of poo including at times outside gates. It's really frustrating and although my kids are older we're a regular cut through to school and it must be a nightmare for those wjth small kids. I totally get the budget issues for councils but the point made above about lack of community pride and crap attracting crap is key. We live off an alley and the HMOs on our street regularly chuck furniture and bin bags out the back alley rather than in their massive bins at the front, so much money is wasted every 6 months clearing it up

UK council tax bands urgently need reform, from what I’ve heard - so many places are paying mad amounts compared to a lot of far richer places in London.

'I weed outside my house'. Took me a moment.

Thanks, fun police

Yes councils should be cleaning our streets. But when they have to choose between school funding and street cleaning I know which I would prefer.

Our village is very much forgotten by the council, in 4 years of living here I have never seen any street cleaning. When things broke in our village playpark, there was a village fundraiser to replace it. Monthly organised litter picks, and many active pensioners who do it most days themselves, the local pub gives a free drink to anyone who produces a rubbish bag from litter picking. And the village is pretty much spotless.

Bit ridiculous that here we pay 3k council tax and get very little though, in London we payed 1.2k and much better services

We have similar problem in our town. I have discovered, however, that if I use their online reporting system they are quite good at coming out to deal with whichever thing I've reported. I think what they've done is severely cut back routine bin emptying, street cleaning etc... Instead they just react to complaints as and when they receive them. In their eyes no complaints equals no problem I think. So do try complaining about the road and park in question. You might be pleasantly surprised.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣I read the first few words and thought you were sharing a tale about having a wee outside your house. Slow brain day - in my defence I seem to have pucked up a horrendous bug, and haven't slept for 2 nights.

Well, look at it this way; if something is not done about the dog shit problem, more and more areas (beaches, parks etc.) will probably start banning dogs, and you will have fewer places to take them for a walk.

I’m in favour of rewilding to some extent but agree it’s often just an excuse to not do what’s needed
While councils do have a role I find it utterly abhorrent that some people treat their communities with such disdain. If there’s nowhere to put your rubbish just take it with you ffs!

a more serious issue where I am is boarded up shops, apparently for years/decades. I just don’t understand why any landlord would be ok with having a vacant property for years on end. Just turn it into housing instead of digging up our green belt- councils should have powers to seize these buildings
and either turn into housing or knock it down and put in a bit of greenery.

@MasterBeth
You're not funny. Sad.

Not you too! Stop weeing outside your house!

I weed outside my house and all of my block of houses because I am a nutter and I think it looks awful .

I also bought a litter pick stick and pick anything up , usually what foxes have gotten into !

I'd rally a local litter clean up via fb if I was you!

No wonder the country is in a state with you weeing outside your house. Don't you have a toilet?

It's a cycle isn't it, once things like weeds are neglected some people take less interest in bothering to keep it nice and it sinks further into cesspittery. It's also been quite gradual so you don't notice as much until you go somewhere you haven't been in a while; viewing the state of most towns today even from 10 years ago would be shocked.

It's awful. I genuinely hate that I'm bringing my kids up here.
If I could easily move, we'd be off.

I was born and raised in The New Forest, little village called Hordle, and it was a lovely place to grow up.
Then we ended up moving to Bournemouth (Springbourne) when my mum remarried and I've been stuck here for various unavoidable reasons since.

I now live in Poole, so I've at least escaped Bournemouth for the time being, but it's still as bad as being in Bournemouth to me.
Same council, same problems, same lack of action being taken to tackle any of it.

All BCP care about is making tourism money.
They couldn't care less about the actual residents in the area.

And the worst part is, everybody who doesn't live here thinks we are so lucky to live here and almost don't believe you when you explain to them why it's actually horrible.
Why would we make it up?!

I am so sick of seeing discarded, dirty, disposable nappies lying on our beaches here and along the seafront.

What does it have to do with council if people drop rubbish everywhere and don't pick up dogs poo? no amount of cleaning will help if you're surrounded by pigs.

Or is this Tories who came to you town to drop litter and got their dogs to poo?

It will be such a relief when the dog population recedes!

I was walking in my local woods today which is in an affluent area surrounded by expensive houses. There were bags of dog poo everywhere even though there were bins at all the exit points. It was disgusting & shocking that people still do this now. Most of the dog walkers were affluent locals so money doesn't equal class here.

As pp have said when the grants from central government dried up the shortfall has to be made up. I grew up in the seventies in a city where there was excellent green spaces , immaculate libraries, beautiful museums, lots of sporting facilities a generally lovely place to grow up. Despite the spending of the council to regenerate it is not the place I grew up. I still remember the Library I visited as a child in a very working class area that I lived in . It was a beautiful building , with a highly polished floor and staircase, absolutely immaculate inside, the library I go to now is in grubby run down building,still fortunately open but only because it's run by volunteers,sadly I think that's the only way forward now despite eye watering council taxes. Councils spend capital expenditure on showcase schemes that don't last long whilst all around is crumbling, it's not working.

Our village and local town has volunteer litter picks.
I already clean the dog shit from the path outside my house, I’m not doing anymore.
The local council/parish are doing the rewilding. I wouldn’t mind if was full of wild flowers but it’s just grass and clover. A couple of roundabout’s are covered in beautiful wild flowers.
Also the rubbish left from the bin collected/recyling.
My DH pulls the weeds outside our fence.
But the roads are dreadful full of pot holes, in fact they put in speed bumps but left the pot holes!

The fault lies on both sides in my town. Council is out of money (managed exceptionally poorly), so all the extras have been lost. Some of the people moving into the borough over the last 5 years have exceptionally questionable morals and low standards. There is no enforcement of anything apart from parking fines.
It is a constant fight between those people that want a decent place to live and are prepared to volunteer and those that destroy it.

One example of this is for years people campaigned to tidy up the parks for all children to use. And within two weeks of them being reopened some local riff raff graffitied all over the new equipment and ripped it apart.
It is disheartening and each time we fall to a new low more and more people leave.

We are literally a town of two halves and all you can do is work hard and move into the better side.

’I’m starting with the man in the mirror’. Last week me and several neighbours weeded the street. A local group also meets once a month to tidy the local public areas, plant seeds etc.

People need to take pride in where they live. Even the poorest of places can look ok if it’s kept tidy, but everyone capable has to pitch in.

I also think community service for offenders should be used more instead of prison e.g tidying up cemeteries, repainting park equipment etc.

My town was getting like this but in lockdown a bunch of very nice people started tidying the place up. A group of garden enthusiasts plant flowers in verges, and have hung hanging baskets all over town. A local window cleaner power washes street signs and graffiti. Someone else goes into the woods with a bin bag and picks up litter. There is a monthly street litter pick. A very buff fella has taken it upon himself to unclog drains. A retired man offers to do tip runs for people who can’t. The scrap man arrives within minutes of an appliance being left outside.

Locals are happy to fundraise for extra things like bins, and the primary schools have got involved with litter picking sessions near schools which hopefully will teach kids not to drop rubbish. There are still problems - potholes, too many barbers and crap shops, bored teenagers etc - but the town is generally really tidy.