LETTER: What has happened to Edenvale?

EDITOR – May I join the long line of complainants regarding our services?

Firstly, about three months ago the island gardens in Hurlyvale were cleaned out and the leaves and other debris were piled into neat little heaps.

Since then no one has come to clear them away and subsequently the neat little piles have now been blown and spread all over the place.

What is the purpose of clearing the gardens if it is going to be a job half done?

Secondly, regarding the Litter Pickers, the lady who comes down my road walks at the pace of a snail with her cellphone glued to her ear and she occasionally picks up a piece of rubbish.

She has never been down my side of the road and neither does she pick up anything that is on the island between the two lanes.

I notice that the general public who take walks around the suburb and dog walkers pick up more of the rubbish than those being paid to do the job!

Then, of course, we have garbage collectors.

Because of their rush to finish the job they strew rubbish all over the place and anything that happens to fall out of a bin (even at their feet) just gets stepped over.

Then there is the problem of the bin owner to find the bin afterwards.

Sometimes it is put outside the gate, sometimes if the truck is a little way up the road it is pushed as hard as possible in the hope that it might reach its correct destination.

It usually ends up in the middle of the road and on its side.

We pay for these services and this is what we get.

Don’t tell me that they are short of funds to get extra or better-trained employees when municipal money is spent on inconsequential things.

Surely there is a solution to these problems. If not and we have to clean our island gardens and the streets, we should get huge rebates on our municipal bills.

Years ago we never had these problems and the municipal workers worked a lot harder.

I may as well mention the pruning of the trees.

This the responsibility of the parks department but they are never pruned, and if one decides to do it themselves after requesting the municipality to do the job they are in danger of being fined because they do not own the trees.

Edenvale used to be such a lovely suburb and I was so happy to be able to move here 25 years ago, but now I wonder if I did the right thing.

P Hardie.

Hurlyvale.