LettersOpinion

By-laws gone bye-bye

Sir,The envisaged urban regeneration of Dundee programme, as started by the Premier’s office, is a fresh light in the tunnel, and we hope something will come of it. The influx of foreign visitors has dwindled down to a mere trickle now, and we still have a municipality that tries to suck as much money as possible …

Sir,
The envisaged urban regeneration of Dundee programme, as started by the Premier’s office, is a fresh light in the tunnel, and we hope something will come of it. 
The influx of foreign visitors has dwindled down to a mere trickle now, and we still have a municipality that tries to suck as much money as possible from what still remains of tourism product owners in this town. By the end of this year, two more B&Bs are going to be closed down. This town used to eat on tourism, as Denis Beckett wrote about us some years ago.
Today this town is nothing more than a rubbish dump. Coronation Park is glittering with all the empty beer bottles and other assorted rubbish this morning, again. Cattle and goats scrounge in residential areas for something to eat, and town by-laws have gone bye-bye. We keep hearing about the by-laws coming, but nobody sees anything being implemented.
In the meantime tour guides are sitting in coffee shops, B&Bs are empty, or now cater only to local sales reps and contractors, and the town is slowly suffocating in its own rubbish. 
The municipality recently hiked all rates and taxes, but no streets are being cleaned. Some half-hearted attempt was made to remove illegal hawkers, and traffic law enforcement has all but disappeared.
The majority of taxi drivers, primarily, and private motorists in Dundee drive as they please, with very little, if any, regard for traffic regulations on the road, and a traffic officer is a rare sight in Dundee nowadays. Two English guests at a lodge outside Dundee preferred to drive straight through, without stopping, as they thought it may not be safe for them…!
We need to effect a paradigm shift in the heads of all Dundonians if this is going to work. 
We cannot regenerate the urban environment if the majority of the population still thinks its okay to urinate against a telephone pole, or leave containers in public where they have been eating.
Practical resident

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