The Last Straw.

smart

It’s been a long time since I allowed myself a rant about litter in the neighbourhood, so please indulge an old man’s moan.

The daily accumulation of drinks cans, fast food containers, surgical masks and cigarette ends does not lessen, though the place looks better for a few days when a litter picker has been round. Now, though, we have the departing students’ summer spectacular of fly-tipping. The city council have removed a stack of black bags dumped opposite our house, but three times I have filled our bins – glass recycling and general waste – with rubbish dumped outside our home. Food waste attracts those sharp-billed chancers, the herring gulls, who spread pizza crusts and more across the street for the foxes and rats to enjoy. I would rather clear up before that happens, but I’d rather not have to clear it up at all.

Back to the regular round. Good to see one student landlord has tidied the pavement outside one of his houses. The rubbish in my bag accumulates fast, until it gets too heavy for the catch on the carrying ring and drops out. Time for me to stop, straighten my back, and come home and complain.

Love where you live!

Skaters are tidy people

This is another view of the disused car park – disused by parking cars, at least, but taken over by roller skaters and skate boarders. There’s space enough to work up speed safely, while the redundant plastic barriers can be used to define a course.

Yesterday morning these young skaters were picking litter from the bushes beside the railway line. Thank you to them!

(The building to the left of the photo is Canterbury West’s historic signal box, once installed at central London’s Blackfriars Station. It is, unusually, fixed above the railway instead of to one side, and is an historic listed building.)