Why does the UK stop caring for its surroundings?

[Nutmuncher]

As a frequent visitor to my local city I’ve seen the last few years of rapid growth and development of the city centre, lots of huge new spaces and public domains have been created, lovely planters etc. It seems though that once the things are built that’s it, they’re just left to rot away and no one seems to care for them.

There’s a glass bridge near the Cathedral for example which must be around 10 years old, the glass has probably never been cleaned covered in algae, the pavements covered in gum, graffiti and litter on either side of it. It perhaps gets the occasional stop by a street cleaner but no proper cleaning.

Surely there’s a role for a team of people to clean public spaces regularly, like actually going around scraping stickers off lamp posts, removing graffiti, replanting planters? Why do we just build things then leave them unkept to rot away? It would have a huge impact on the feel and aesthetics of our surroundings yet is so far down the priority list nothing gets done.

I agree. The council built a lovely wooden playground a few years ago. It was closed last year because portions of it had rotted away and deteriorated to the point of being dangerous. Yesterday, I drove about 45 minutes to another town. The grass verges were absolutely covered in litter the whole way. Really sad to see.

DH is part of a group of volunteers who organise regular litter picks in parks and clean up the river. In other countries I've seen workers on every street picking up litter, sweeping pavements and tending to trees and bushes. There are hundreds of thousands of people in need of work - why can't the government pay them to do that instead of sitting on benefits?

Put simply? Local councils are on the bones of their arses - there is no money for that level of upkeep.

It's not 'the UK' that doesn't care, it's the selfish, self-important, littering, pig-ignorant section of society that takes no pride in its surroundings and thinks someone else should run behind it with a broom.

You aren’t wrong.

Councils have no money to pay for litter removal / upkeep of planters / cleaning of public areas etc.

So it relies on volunteers.

But more and more public services are relying on volunteers (eg libraries, parks) and I doubt there are enough volunteers to do everything that needs doing, and they don’t have the skills / equipment to do everything.

The amount of litter and fly-tipping in my area has increased massively, it’s disgusting, people don’t seem to care. There is another thread about this at the moment: www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5036144-what-is-with-all-the-litter-everywhere

Because ‘you can’t make them’ and they’re all disabled in a specific way which means they can do sports and the gym but not litter pick? 🙄

People also forget their house is part of the wider surroundings - you can’t complain if the road outside is grim if your garden is overgrown, broken bits of furniture in the garden and your house is badly in need of a clean and paint.

People will blame the council and lack of money - but I see it in private businesses too.

So many shops, restaurants etc you go into and the toilets are a mess, for example. Or the local train station, just needs a good scrub. Went to the bank and it has the most depressing vibe, piles of papers, pictures not hung properly on the walls.

I don’t get it - where’s the leadership / ownership in these places? They all have employees - I don’t know why people don’t take pride in their space!

Most councils are on the brink of bankruptcy due to astronomically increased spending on SEND and social care. Cleaning, gardening, maintenance schedule budgets have been slashed. There simply isn’t the money anymore.

Too many people just don’t care. Chucking rubbish out of car windows, dropping cans, packaging etc while walking around because carrying it until you find a bin is way too much effort.

I totally agree. Where I live is disgusting, people just chuck litter around the local shops despite there being enough bins. It doesn't help that there is a large secondary school nearby. Also the local council charges a fortune for collection of furniture so the amount of fly tipping is a horrendous. I'm thinking of picking up drinks cans and seeing if I can get money for them. I could honestly fill 10 bin bags with them just off one area of land.

Or because you'd have to pay them NMW, which councils can't afford. Because otherwise using people on benefits that way would be exploitation. It was called 'workfare', it was tried, it failed.

Want the work done? Pay people a proper wage, attached to a proper job with paid leave, pension, the works. But that costs.

I think a lot of it is down to people not having local pride. In our village people moan about the litter at the park and village hall. We have several football teams that play there and its a nice space when the weather is nice so it cumulates. However nobody offers to take up the village halls offer of forming a litter picking committee or borrowing the kit that is at the hall. We have our own kit from the council which we've used a few times and done it ourselves in the hour our kids have used the park. If a few other people did the same then there'd be nothing to moan about. It's the I've not got time brigade but yet you've brought your kids out to the park for a run around, do it with them for 20 minutes and then let them play.

Our nearest (market) town have some beautiful floral displays that are kept up with each year and it does seem quite clean on the streets. The council take pride in the upkeep and our council tax has been frozen for several years. I guess as we get some tourism from cotswold tourists who come over the county border that is probably why.

We have a large park in the middle of the small town I live in, with a river running along side. Every sunny day, families arrive to let their kids play and have a picnic.
When they leave, some of them go to the bother of collecting their rubbish up and taking it to a litter bin, which by then are full, so they just dump their crap next to it and wander back to their car. Within a few minutes its blowing everywhere, ruining the park, yet it never occurs to them to take their rubbish home and dispose of it there.

A lot of ignorant people just don’t care.
They literally don’t see it, probably because they also live in rubbish pit.

I think we just have very low standards in England. It's OK to litter and it's OK for environments not to be kept clean. Not everyone lives to such a low bar, but it is a significant enough part of the population to have a massive impact. What I don't understand is how it got to this, or was it always this way and there are just so many more of us now? I think England is increasingly like those futuristic dystopian films. The one where the environment is literally trashed and everyone is down trodden. This might be the way it is for lots of places but I can only speak of my own experiences.

They are being paid. They’re being paid benefits.

I think because we have changed from a society which cared about things looked to one where the government is trying to get everything for the lowest possible price and businesses are exploiting their workers, customers and would prefer to do things badly at minimal cost. Also as everything has gone up in price and many people have to work for much longer, there are less volunteers around.

So many people doing diddly squat could actually be earning their keep by doing simple litter picking or cleaning jobs. And yes that includes those awaiting their asylum claims. Swathes of them are brought into town on buses because understandably they get bored staying in their accommodation. There is so much good they could be doing if only they were given the opportunity.

I do wonder how European countries manage to keep their environment so nice. Surely we could take a few notes from them?

Japan is very clean as they just create random jobs. For example, they wash the refuse trucks down at the end of every day so that they are clean for the next day.

Councils get grants for the "Big" things that get the councillors some publicity in the local media, but they never budget for the ongoing maintenance because there's no "glory" in it, so stuff gets ignored.

In our town, we had a multi million pound outdoor swimming pool and indoor events space - local councillors were all over local media for weeks when it opened with great fanfare.

A decade later, after it had been basically ignored with no maintenance etc., it was deemed unsafe and closed down and then demolished as there was no money to repair it.

That's only one such example - there are lots more. Including millions spent on turning a town centre car park into an events space with planters etc that again was completely ignored, barely ever used for events and is now a grot spot, with graffiti and letter everywhere, damaged planters full of weeds etc.

Councils should be forced to provide a budget for maintenance rather than just spending their grant money as otherwise it just ends up yet another waste of public money.

No councils can't afford to pay wages, but they should be paid by the government for the savings the government is making by giving them a job. Same old story of lack of joined up thinking which ends up costing more in the long run. Same with the disputes between NHS and local councils when it comes to which "budget" the care costs come out of when discharged - we need to start looking holistically and stop the "silo" approach to public spending.

Because it's quite easy to get a capital grant for community assets but not easy at all to get a regular allowance for maintenance.
Litter picking and maintenance of gates, styles, planters and hedges are a constant battle in our village. Volunteer working parties are often the only way to get them done. Even clearing the village pond annually is done by volunteers

Maybe all these people who say “We want are cuntree back” could clean it up and reclaim it.

This.

Now add to it how society has evolved and that it's not someone else's job to pick up after others on one hand, whilst on the other hand some people feel much more entitled to express themselves by leaving behind a whole load of shite, whether this be litter and fly-tipping, or deliberate acts of vandalism.

Not that this is new of course, but there's much less pride and community spirit, and following on from what a previous PP was saying about the state of the bank they visited, a great many high streets I've been to look like absolute shit-hole due to the fact so many businesses have vacated. The sooner that we accept the high street as we knew it had gone forever and will never be coming back, the sooner something can be done with what's left.

And due previously to Conservative government cuts and the running down of public services (either non existent or replaced with expensive private alternatives).