Why such dirty streets

magily · 13-07-2006, 14:04

I now live in Canada and when people visit the first thing they comment on is how clean everything is. When I go home (my family now live in B/burn The first thing is I notice is how dirty everything is. People seem not have pride in their communities, kids think nothing of throwing their rubbish on the floor, still side step around the dog **** and just generally don't care. I think it is sad that particularly children are not raised with that sense of pride. My 4 kids would not dream of throwing anything on the floor, when in England they are amzed that people do not poop and scoop. This is not meant to offend I am just curious as to why. I love coming home, I will always be a Lancashire lass. When I was home last I asked some of the kids on my Mum's street to clean it up, they would only do it if they were paid, they said that they didn't care how it looked. Not their problem were there words.

fireman · 13-07-2006, 14:25

I agree totally with your comments. My family too would never throw litter on the streets but I'm afraid it all goes back to the parents, kids tend to do as others, including parents do. I watched an asian woman and her 3 kids leaving Mc Donalds in Blackburn dropping bags and boxes everywhere in the street. I informed her that she and her kids seemed to have dropped something, she looked and then replied.... "Oh no it is rubbish". After I pointed out the rubbish bin no more than 2 metres from her she still ignored the litter and carried on about her business. How can we expect the kids to have pride in the country if the parents have none.

chav1 · 13-07-2006, 14:28

lol agree with you but these days if you ask a child what the "P" word is when they ask for somthing the reply will most likely be pi$$ off

some folk are brought up and some are dragged up

cashman · 13-07-2006, 14:31

i would say its the british mentality in general, when i lived in spain we used to nip over to gibralter every 2/3 weeks and boy could you tell we owned it, agree with fireman its all about parents and respect which sadly has diminshed in many cases.

Basher · 13-07-2006, 15:04

Agree with all that has been said.

It's that bad that when I saw a young lad put his litter in a litter bin this morning I was very impressed and thought "well at least someone is bringing their children up with values."

magily · 13-07-2006, 15:12

I am glad that you agree with my comment. Does none of the council members want to try and put some pride back into the town.In the spring we have community clean up days, everyone comes out and cleans up the parks. The kids have painted the bins to make them look nicer. I was reading the post regarding the hanging baskets in Ossy, forget the flowers and put the money into a street cleaner or is the idea that people looking up at the flowers may not notice the rest of the rubbish on the floor. I don't entirely blame the kids because I think some of the adults are worse.

lettie · 13-07-2006, 15:51

I completely agree with everything said on here. It is sad to come home after travelling to places such as Singapore and Hong Kong where it is heavily populated and litter free, to see our Aldi bags stuck in trees, shog dite on the pavements and rubbish blowing in the breeze.

I think that over the years some people have begun to think that littering is acceptable and that nobody minds. There are laws against littering in this country but it is as rare as rocking horse manure that they are enforced. The community wardens would have been well placed to slap fines on people for littering (including kids). Not only would it have paid their salaries but would have contributed towards clean up costs.

Takeaways and off licences should be made to do their bit by adding costs to the products they sell and refunding for the return of the packaging. We never used to see all of this glass on the streets when you got a 5p refund back on the bottle.

I was lucky enough to witness the Hong Kong system when a hapless Brit dropped some litter outside the airport. A gun carrying policeman came at him and extracted a $600 on the spot fine. It was either pay up or go to jail until somebody pays up for you. The policeman then made the man pick up his rubbish and put it in the bin (less than 6 metres away). Needless to say I was peeing myself laughing all the way into town. If only that happened here..........

accymel · 13-07-2006, 16:03

Blimey Lettie hehehehe that brought back memories collecting & returning pop bottles for between 5 - 15p per glass bottle - that used to fund my sweet spends LOL i remember going round everywhere where we lived in search of those bottles & did well every week, sadly alas not be be anymore it seems

My pet hates is dog muck & littering

dog muck is probably the worst specially as its summer you can guarentee one will have a bit of muck on their shoes cos some careless dog owners cant clean up after their animal whilst about on the streets & has no respect for anyones health or inconvienience of cleaning dog crap & dont even own a dog!! Im always reminding my 2 about littering & think im a right fishwife because i remind them what their pockets can be used for if theres no bin around - though i think society as a whole is culprit not just parents as with anything there seems no distinct definition or example set in this country cos even the most meticulous parenting leads to child following their peers example than what they are taught at home.

magily · 13-07-2006, 16:13

Is it better just to sit back and say that it is acceptable or should someone be trying to do something about it. By doing nothing it makes it ok, someone has to start somewhere. The kids finish schools maybe you could encourage your kids to clean up your streets and hopefully someone will notice and might make them clean their own. What are the laws regarding dogs ? They should be on a lead unless in a designated park. There is a lot to be said for dog parks as well as dog toilet areas. We laugh but at least you can walk down the street with your head held high instead of looking down afraid of what you may step in.

accymel · 13-07-2006, 16:25

Easy to say magily but seems harder to enforce apparently as for eg dog fouling - there are signs for penalites for doing so but policing it is another as seemingly same with litter - think it comes down to the usual money of employing such enforcers - i dont know

I'd really like to know how foreign lands can keep their streets so clean & we cant - there must be something??

But yeh its a case of watch were you tread here.

magily · 13-07-2006, 16:33

I can only speak from experience over here and I can tell you that you just don't see litter and certainly no signs saying do not litter. I think because the streets are already clean people then don't litter. We live by an alleyway and it is cleaned regularly from butt ends as kids from the local high school go there. Is it a question of pride, I think so. The British are the proudest nation when it comes to big events, world cup, royal family etc.. but do not have a lot of pride in their towns.

chav1 · 13-07-2006, 16:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by accymel

Blimey Lettie hehehehe that brought back memories collecting & returning pop bottles for between 5 - 15p per glass bottle - that used to fund my sweet spends LOL i remember going round everywhere where we lived in search of those bottles & did well every week, sadly alas not be be anymore it seems

we used to go behind accrington victoria and collect the bottles thrown out after patients had finished with them

10p gradualy rising to 20p over the years for bar bottles

7p for lucozade bottles

kept me and my mate in sweets all through our school years

if we ever got a half full bottle we did used to wonder if some poor sod didnt make it and died before finishing their pop but at least if they wernt in a better place their pop bottle was

as for dog muck

any owner caught letting its dog foul the pavement should be given the option of either a £1000 on the spot fine or have their pet executed on the spot and be banned from keeping animals.Ime sure after little timmothy witnesses his beloved fido executed in the street that when he is old enough to own a pet dog of his own he will think twice about letting it crap on the pavement hence leading to a new generation of thoughfull pet owners

cherokee · 13-07-2006, 17:50

I totally agree with all thats been said... im a proud owner of two lovely dogs and i wouldnt dream of letting them foul the pavement..even my own garden is kept spotless an washed every day after them...i can appreciate people not likeing dog fouling because i myself hate it...As for litter, dont know about hyndburn yet but here in blackpool there are wardens patroling the town centre and if you are caught dropping gum litter or even a ciggy you get an on the spot fine..and since it came into force town is a much cleaner place more towns should do this

chav1 · 13-07-2006, 18:23

nowt worse then letting your children play out in a park and have them come back covered in SOMEONE ELSES dogs sh1t

i have thrown away trainers rather than pick dog sh1t out of the tread as it makes me wretch to do it and that is one reason why i dont have a dog because i couldnt pick up its sh1t , the other reason is i am alergic to them

when the RSPCA give out dogs or when pet shops sell dogs they should not only make sure that the new owner has suitable facilites etc for it but provide a quick tutorial on how to clean up after them

anyone that looks like they are gonna puke while cleaning up the dog mess shuold be refused as it is highly unlikely that they will do it once they get the dog home

magily · 13-07-2006, 18:45

I'm with you Chav that is why we don't have a dog. My kids were nagging me for a dog, so at the time my friend was going on vacation for 1mth so I said that we would dog sit for her. At first the kids were thrilled for about the first day, then it became a fight as to who would feed and poop and scoop, so guess who ended up doing it all. That was 2yrs ago now and needless to say they have not asked for a dog since. My motto regarding is be willing to poop and scoop not bend and pretend.