Danger in the park

INEVITABLY, it seems, Salisbury's parks are filling up with rubbish as the hot weather draws the crowds. (Distancing doesn't come into it.)

But why should this mess be inevitable?

In Harnham, the closure of the Old Mill during the pandemic seems to have worsened the problem as instead of buying drinks in the pub, picnickers cart their own bottles from home down to the riverside and abandon the empties by the overflowing bins.

Result: Mounds of unsavoury detritus piling up along the water's edge and creating a health hazard to children and dogs who just want to splash around and cool down.

One dog walker I bumped into there this morning had brought a carrier bag with him to fill with empty glass bottles - some of them broken, with jagged edges which could slice open a paddling kiddie's ankle or a dog's paw, as well as injure wildlife - and he then carted them back to his own home to dispose of safely. Amazingly public-spirited, but he shouldn't have to do it. Another waded into the water to pull out a plastic garden chair.

If people can carry a bottle to the park, why can't they carry it home again and put it in their own bin? After all, it will be considerably lighter on the return journey once they've quaffed the contents.

Answer: They are too lazy, and they think 'the council' will come and clear up after them.

Trouble is, 'the council' has limited manpower at present, with staff off sick or self-isolating, like any other employer, as one elected member I nagged about it later told me.

He's promised to raise the issue at the Guildhall tomorrow, and I hope some good will come of it. 

But it's not just a problem during the pandemic, actually. It happens every time we have a sunny spell. The city council needs to have a system in place that allows its bin-emptying service to respond more speedily to changes in demand.

FOOTNOTE: After I raised this yesterday the city council litter team came out within half an hour and cleared 26 bags of rubbish from Harnham cricket field. Well done, and thanks to Cllr Simon Jackson.

Proceed with caution on parking ban

JUST when you thought it was safe to go back into town …

Along comes news that, for some, will make it a whole lot more difficult.

Whether this is the right time to press ahead with more pedestrianisation and ban on-street parking for shoppers is debatable.

In the long run, it has to be desirable to encourage walking and cycling. It’s an absolute no-brainer. If you are young enough and fit enough, that is.

More bus use, too, if there were enough regular, reliable buses with fares lower than car park charges. And that’s a big if.

But cutting back on taxi spaces? With a rapidly increasing elderly population? Surely if anything, you’d need more, not fewer?

How will it affect the market? Have the traders been consulted? Even for the not-so-elderly (me!), if you’re lugging bags of heavy fruit and veg, it can feel like a long way to the nearest car park. If you have a car.

At the same time, you’re making it harder for people to bring their own vehicles in anyway.

That’s a huge deterrent to the kind of people who might well use on-street parking briefly to pick up a heavy purchase or drop off a charity shop donation. Has anyone actually asked Oxfam, Mencap, our Hospice and the rest what they think about this?

What about the taxi drivers, incidentally? Haven’t we got enough unemployment right now?

Theirs isn’t an easy living anyway, and it’s going to get a whole lot tougher, with the city centre’s diminishing retail offering and with our entertainment venues and restaurants still closed.

I don’t really buy into the argument that this is about enabling pedestrians and cyclists to keep a safer distance from each other.

I can see why some councillors might have thought it was a good idea to use the coronavirus disruption as an opportunity to push ahead with their long-held ambition to bring in environmental improvements, not least to our air quality.

Half of me is with them on this. Make a fresh start!

The other half wonders whether this is the right time to risk measures that might well, in the short term at least, deter some shoppers and hurry along more job losses.

It sounds as though there’s some doubt about whether all of these ideas can be funded at once.

And maybe that’s a good thing. A gradual approach to these changes, with wide public consultation, might be wise.

Welcome back!

HELLO and welcome to any of my former Journal readers who've decided to follow me here.

If there's one good thing that's come out of coronavirus and the lockdown it's a long overdue renewal of our sense of community, and I hope that by resuming this blog I can also help to promote that, although I can't guarantee that local and national politics won't intrude!

For now, though, in our little cul-de-sac one of the highlights of the week is our Sunday lunchtime gathering, wine glasses or coffee mugs in hand, to chat across a two-metre divide.

Despite the appalling example set by our so-called leaders we are still trying to be socially responsible!

With so many musically talented residents, we've even had a couple of concerts, passing the hat round online and raising more than £200 for Salisbury Hospital ArtCare in the process.

Now this week's get-together has sparked a little history project dreamed up by one of my neighbours.

Since our road seems to have been developed in dribs and drabs, we're collating dates from conveyancing paperwork and the accompanying plans to draw up a timeline, and gathering as much information as we can from online sources about previous occupants to create a shared record.

It promises to be a fascinating exercise and maybe it will inspire others to follow suit .........