Tell me about street WhatsApp group.

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I moved to my house in August and was put on the street WhatsApp group. So far the entire topic of conversation has been people trying to get rid of their old crap instead of taking it to charity/ the dump. Or the same people always wanting to ‘borrow’ stuff like bubble wrap, after sun, carpet cleaners, onions and other mundane things they can’t be bothered to buy for themselves.
i believe there is a more exciting group that involves a lot of alcohol but I’m not on that one ( sadly).
I bet you all have much more hip and exciting groups than mine.

Ours is mostly about lost recycling boxes - it's thrilling 🙄

The only street one we have is a neighbourhood watch one that is strictly only about that so not at all exciting.
We have one of mums of pre school children on the wider estate but that's really useful- lots of handing on toys and equipment, lots of advice and sympathy when needed!

Ah. I was hoping someone would have one full of fights and affairs and gossip.😂🧐

This is one of the many reasons i like being rural.

we have two - a wider street one which talks about rubbish, things happening in the local area and gardening. It organises street parties and the like too. And we have a smaller inner sanctum one where we drink together, have a book club and share thoughts on plays, exhibitions and local politics.

I like it, it's nice having neighbours.

I did find out once though that there was another one where they complained about my teenage children (who were perfectly reasonable and law abiding btw) during lockdown. So that's good.

Ours can get a bit 'lively' with the odd off joke/close to the knuckle remark (which, thankfully always get called out. Mostly to do with security (there's a lot of car theft), giving g away stuff and spats with the local business that parks cars on the street.

I've never heard of such a thing, but then again, we've never lived on a street. We live in the middle of nowhere. All we have is a group amongst us so we can keep track of whose farm/fields the dc might be at. So it's a lot of 'anyone know where Billy is?' 'Yep, he's driving the tractor with Tommy, I'll send him home' 'Does anyone happen to have Molly?' 'Last I saw her she was building a dam in the river, let me go look' It's mostly us looking for our unattended feral children and sometimes discussing planning applications for various bits of work. 😂

That sounds horrific if there Is a street group I've not been asked to join.,a hello how are you does me fine. I have 2 neighbours on sm and 2 other elderly neighbours have my phone number that they have never used. Thought of Street WhatsApp gives me anxiety!

Ours can be useful but does go through obsessional phases. Currently it is trying to identify a gang of young lads who are vandalising cars.

Ours is garden bin collection queries, people giving (sometimes quite nice!) stuff away and v occasionally someone selling an item. The odd warning when a car was broken into but very tame and no drama at all.

I once got a bit of a lecture for offering someone tramadol during lockdown when they posted in agony with toothache asking if anyone could drop a couple of painkillers over until they could get to the chemist. I didn't realise I shouldn't have (and tbh I did think in this context it was a bit petty) but I just did a thumbs up and withdrew the offer.

Just realised I was the cause of the only drama in the past few years

Ours is a nightmare. Moans about everything, loose dogs, fly tipping, boy racers, the smell from the fields (we live rurally??!!) trespassers, dog poo, and planning applications which are discussed and violently opposed despite the people who put the application in also being on the thread! I CBA with it anymore so have muted it.

I live on a private lane and ours mostly consists of "is this anyone's visitor?" if they don't have the requisite pass displayed in the window (with photograph of the offending car).

Over lockdown it was very friendly though, which was nice.

I was persuaded by my lovely next door neighbour to join the neighbourhood WhatsApp group (after a couple of years of me saying ‘no thank you’ every-time she asked me to join!)

It’s actually pretty useful - there was a spate of burglaries a few years back, everyone was looking out for one another & reporting anything dodgy. If someone forgets to put their bins out, they’ll get reminded\neighbour will put them out. It’s also good for things like ‘whose doing Halloween this year?’ and who doesn’t want to be disturbed, that kind of thing.

Most recently, we’ve had dog shit appearing a few times a week right outside people’s gates, the dirty b@astard owner has now been identified and shamed.
Voila! No more dog shit (for a while at least)

Fortunately, nobody seems to go overboard with the messages. I also feel like it gives a sense of community.

Actually I've just remembered we did have a flouncing, when someone obviously felt we were all being too bitchy about the new pub on the corner, so that was a bit exciting.

Ours is - bins, the fucking builders next door, bins, is your Virgin Media service down?, bins, has anyone else got low water pressure?, bins, lost Amazon parcel, shifty bloke - possibly a burglar, bins.

Ours is great, I have had a couple of things being given away and also offered stuff that was taken. Also organised a coronation street party. No drama at all.

Ours is 25% giving stuff away, 25% borrowing things, 50% bins, missing parcels, dodgy blokes/crime, white Mazda has left its lights on/rear window open, missing cats.

Plus a street party once a year.

It's useful, but I'm slightly bemused by the people who put stuff on there like books or clothes which could easily be dropped off at one of the ten local charity shops. Furniture and food makes sense to recycle locally though: we've got rid of loads of stuff to neighbours and acquired loads of stuff in return.

We stay studiously away from local politics, but I think we're about to have a Low Traffic Neighbourhood imposed, which may put pressure on that policy.

Awful lot of people seem to have one. We don't, i can't see anyone on our street bothering. I speak to my neighbours face to face.

Someone set ours up during the first lockdown, with the idea that it could be a sort of support network I guess. To be fair it is quite useful sometimes.

Mine is full of parking whinges when people park in spaces that aren't theirs.

The ones that whinge loudest are usually guilty too

I love our street WhatsApp chat. We are a young family on a road generally of retirees. There is lots of giving away things (but nice, and helped us considerably after spending most of our savings renovating), there's also lots of sharing (things like certain types of tools, things we need for random school requests), generally watching out for each other (bins, pets, parcels, suspicious events, tradespeople recs etc), general greetings and good wishes at key holidays etc

Our street one is great and very supportive. It has the usual subjects - escaped dogs, bins, bonfires etc, but is also very supportive. Ie. Offering to get help in times of need etc.

There's a couple of people who drive me nuts on ours. Always moaning about something. They really need to get a life!

But there are other very lovely people too ☺️

Ours was set up at the start of lockdown too - there was a lot of "I'm in the Tesco queue, anyone need anything?" and "Lidl has some loo roll"

We did have a bit of a kerfuffle when the proposed Graffiti Art Project under the bridge was vehemently opposed by the person that lives nearest to it and a few supporters, but those of us who'd thought it might be a good idea just kept our heads down, and it went away.

Now it's used to organise the occasional street party (and 24's mulled wine and mince pies do), coo over 20's visiting hedgehogs, invite people to help themselves to 27's apples, ask if anyone wants any of 8's rhubarb, announce the new babies (22 and 12 within 2 days of each other!) post pictures of rainbows and sunsets (in real time, I mean) and say Happy Birthday/Anniversary/etc.

Mine is only a group of 5 house off the end of a cul de sac and a random man who lives at the entrance of the street.

It's mainly people telling me I've left my car window open or when I had a run of my milk being stolen me sharing ring door bell footage- nice bunch but very boring 😂