Readers respond to the “Fir Vale area is a disgrace” letter from our April 2008 issue…
Dear Messenger,
I write to agree with the reader who wrote the letter on page 22 of the April Messenger. Everything this reader writes is 100% correct. Halfway up Hampton Road coming from Fir Vale Road on the right side of the pavement there is a pot hole, very deep and round. I am surprised no one has fallen into it and hurt themselves badly. At the moment on Fir Vale Road, somebody has dumped a mattress on the pavement in front of my neighbour’s garage. Their garage is around the corner of Hampton Road. Last year someone dumped an old TV in the same spot. I do not believe people know what dustbins are for. There are newspapers and all sorts of rubbish. I’ve picked up letters with people’s names and addresses on. The wind blows everything down the road. And people this end of the road have to put up with the rubbish outside their houses or tangled up around their car wheels. There are a few neighbours who come out and sweep outside their homes. The street cleaners do a good job but next day it’s just as bad. Around the corner on Fir Vale opposite the Corner Shop all of the trees were cut down and now it is just a dump. There are rats coming from this same place. Some of the neighbours on Fir Vale say they have seen rats there.
Fir Vale Resident
Dear Sir/Madam,
In reply to your letter in the April Edition of the Messenger, I agree that Fir Vale is a disgrace. If the police and wardens did their jobs and moved on traffic parked on double yellow lines, then at least the traffic would be better. There should be a bus gate at the main junction as traffic coming down Barnsley Road regularly blocks the junction. Why can’t the takeaways be made to employ just one person for them all to pick up their litter whilst the shops are open? If they do not comply, either fine them or close them down. It is in their interest to keep streets clean to keep the shops open.
As just one of a group of dog owners who regularly visits Osgathorpe Park, I can tell you it is a minority of dog owners who let their dogs foul the park.
The park is a disgrace; most of the paths are rutted with potholes and dirt. We have been trying to get the railing fitted around the playground and a rat infested mattress collected for the past two years.
The football/cricket pitch is in a terrible condition when it is wet. When you look at Abbeyfield Park and Firth Park, you can see where all the money’s gone. It would help with the problem with litter if the shopkeepers on Scott Road did not give school children carrier bags for their crisps and pop in a morning. All they do is throw them away in the park. Finally the Community Centre is nothing more than a graffiti wall and a place for drunks and prostitutes. It should be closed and knocked down.
It would not take much to improve Fir Vale and the surrounding areas if people did their jobs and our councillors got off their backsides and did something.
Ellesmere resident
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