I have been out on a walk about with the head of the Council’s clean and green department, the head warden and other officers today to look at a number of issues in Framwellgate Moor.

The main reason for the visit was the continued failure by some takeaways and shops to keep the rear and in some cases front of their properties clear of rubbish, and some anti-social behaviour issues.

Takeaways

One particular takeaway which has had various notices served was a disgraceful mess and I have raised with officers the fact that it does seem to take far too long to address some issues like rubbish piling up, fat being poured down drains etc.

Dangerous properties and unsightly properties and overflowing bins

We also discussed two old brick toilet netties down Durham Terrace which I have repeatedly told the council are dangerous and a child, or adult for that mattter could get hurt if one collapsed on them. Senior officers are going to revisit this – I think they should just bulldoze them and bill the owner of the empty properties which are also an eyesore and have also been complained about numerous times by me.

New College drug taking

There is also an ongoing issue with students from New College taking recreational drugs in the area and leaving plastic bottles lying around which they use when smoking these drugs. This is not just a problem of littering, these youths are congregating near houses which children live, in smoking drugs which stink and its just not acceptable.

The students then return to the college and continue their classes. As the college has no means of monitoring whether they are stoned or which students are taking drugs we can only hope that none of them are working with electrics or machinery, and given that the college have been told on more than one occasion that this is an issue, I hope their insurance isn’t going to be voided or worse that someone injures a fellow student.

The police and wardens are also having to waste their time attending the area to try and crack down on this anti-social behaviour at significant cost to them and ultimately to the taxpayer. They could be dealing with other issues.

Vodka bottles and rubbish

All too often it is students at the college who also get all the blame for littering on the front street and the streets off it, however whilst a lot of the litter is from new college students, not all of it is and there are a small number of very inconsiderate residents including one or two in particularly who need to stop dumping vodka bottles and other rubbish around the area.

It’s not funny, bottles get broken, look a mess, and can injure children or pets. The wardens are workimg on getting proof of who this is but they have their suspicions so the easiest thing is for the culprits to use their own bin or one of the dozen bins in the area otherwise at some point they are going to get at least one £80 fine!