Thanks for the advice. I went to fixmystreet.com, selected other and requested some green bags for street leaves. The bags are orange now, but they were delivered the next day. Hopefully they will be collected as quickly as they were delivered. I ordered so many bags, in the e-mail they sent me they said “Thank you for organising a community event” I was going to email them back and say no, that is just for me to do one tree. Instead I went and knocked on a few doors and gave out a few of the bags, hopefully I have inspired a few more people to sweep up outside their houses now they know it is free to get the leaves collected. When I was talking to my neighbours I realised the change in peoples behaviour has been influenced by the different council policies over the years. When I was a kid I would only get my pocket money if I had swept all the leaves outside into the kerb. I think most other people did the same and someone from the council would come and sweep the kerb once a week or so. Then the council got worried about being sued and the road sweepers were no longer allowed to sweep under cars. With so many parked cars there was very little for them to sweep, so the weekly clean was replaced with the yearly clean with all the cars moved out of the way. Since then there have been a few different council policies, for a while people put the leaves in the refuse bags with their other rubbish. Then the council said they would fine anyone who put garden waste in the rubbish and people stopped sweeping up the leaves, I used to fill a refuse bag and fly-tip it by the tree, it always got collected. They then introduced the free garden waste collections and the road was probably the cleanest I’ve seen it, most people swept outside their own house and the council collected it every other week. Then the council started charging for the garden waste and most people stopped sweeping again. Luckily for our road through all the changes we had a Gentleman who swept most of the road almost every day, he only ever swept the leaves into the kerb and made neat piles in the road, but since he passed away last year, it is noticeable how much the road has deteriorated. With the council no longer removing the weeds properly I don’t think I have seen the road look so bad and the leaves haven’t really started to fall yet. There are a few that pay for the garden waste to clear some of the leaves, but not enough to make a difference. Hopefully the step forward with the council collecting the street leaves for free again, is also a step back to when it worked. Everyone sweeping outside their own house and the council collecting them, albeit everyone has to put the leaves in a bag instead of the kerb. If the council were able to organise a regular collection day from now until November when most of the leaves have fallen, I think even more people would sweep the leaves outside their homes.
Colin Potter ● 1147d