Kingsway Villagers

Last night (Monday 6th Feb) at 9.45pm, as I was walking down Valley Gardens, I passed a middle-aged, fair haired woman, accompanied by what I took to be her 2 daughters, pushing two Tesco’s trolleys up the road. The trolleys were filled with Tesco bags, so I assume she’d just done a weekly shop.

So much for the signs that say, “These trolleys will stop if pushed beyond Tesco’s car park” – or words to that effect. That’s probably another two trolleys discarded somewhere on Kingsway (experience suggests she, along with a like-minded minority on Kingsway who lack a social conscience, probably won’t have returned them to the store); Tesco’s will have lost another 2 trolleys – unless it recovers them at some cost to itself, which will be reflected in the prices the rest of us pay.

What worries me, as has been pointed out in a comment on the Asda post, is that if we get another local supermarket, we could be looking at even more trolleys littering the estate. Another argument in favour of pressing Asda for coin-deposit trolleys which, if it won’t exactly eradicate the possibility of further trolleys in Kingsway, may go some way to keeping the problem to a minimum.

Friday, another refuse collection day. Green bin and recycling bin duly left out on the pavement for The Council to collect.

I got home at lunchtime to find that some inconsiderate (expletive deleted) had decided to dump 4 carrier bags of rubbish – not all recyclable by the looks of it – in the emptied green box. (This was obviously after it had been emptied as the dustbin men leave the lid under the box once they’ve taken away the contents).

I’ve had similar things happen in the past and on the first occasion just decided to add the waste to my own collection, but enough is enough; this time I phoned The Council.

They’re not only sending someone to collect the rubbish but, as this is considered fly-tipping, they’ll go through it to see whether they can track down the perpetrator – it must be someone local.

Let’s hope the selfish person who decided to leave their problem rubbish for someone else to deal with has left a receipt or envelope inside the carrier bags, so that The Council can track them down and prosecute them.

Obviously it’s impossible to watch over your rubbish until it’s collected, especially when most of us have to go to work, but this really is anti-social behaviour of the “I’m alright, Jack” variety. (Good job I’m a firm believer of “what goes around, comes around”).

Postscript (Saturday): The Council failed to act yesterday, which meant that overnight someone – probably kids – threw one of the bags of rubbish against the front door!

I’ve reported the incident to The Police, who will now be alert to people walking round Kingsway with bags of rubbish on collection days, and will get back to The Council with a further complaint.

Remember how nice the roundabout used to be at the A38 entrance to Kingsway?
(Editors Note: See website header picture)
Then one day, for reasons that have already been explained here, the trees and stones were taken away!

With the prospect of the road being opened (effectively an extension of Woodvale) in the near future (fingers crossed – didn’t I read it should be open “soon”?), wouldn’t it be nice to have the roundabout put back to its former glory as a sign that people were entering the Kingsway Development?

Of course things like that cost money, but as I drive round Gloucester, I see roundabouts “sponsored” by various companies. Now that we’ve got a new Tesco’s store on Kingsway, might they be able to sponsor the re-design or reinstatement of the roundabout? Or perhaps Marston’s, who are soon to open the new Barn Owl pub, might like to sponsor it? Or perhaps it could be sponsored by the new SevernFM Radio Station (with a sign there giving details of how to listen to the new station)?

The possibilities seem to be quite a few.

We could always have a whip-round amongst the residents – but then there’s the matter of maintaining the roundabout, which is why I think a local company might like to sponsor it. I can’t imagine it would cost that much to send someone round to mow the grass on a small roundabout once in a while, or even clip the trees now and again.

Dare I even suggest Asda as sponsor? I just think it would be nice to have something more pleasant to the eye than the bare space we’ve got now.

Yes…

Parking and The Underpass.

A few days ago, while walking under the underpass, I witnessed a car coming down Valley Gardens towards Matalan. As it approached the underpass, it sped up considerably, as if travelling at speed might allow it to avoid the CCTV. I hope it didn’t. Reckless and dangerous are two words I can think of to describe the driver’s attitude. But a £60 fine at most? If there really is a good reason why this road isn’t open as a general thoroughfare, which I take it there must be, then why aren’t the fines much higher? Are any figures available to show how many people have been caught driving through the underpass? Are they published / made public anywhere to act as a deterrent? A driver thinking they could get away with speeding through the underpass could put a child’s life at risk.

Meanwhile… I’ve also seen a few people parking on the double yellow lines next to the children’s play area on Valley Gardens recently, while they take their children into the play area. It’s good that they take the time to supervise their children; not so good that they effectively block one half of the road, turning it into an obstacle course. Another sign of the “I’m alright Jack” culture that seems to be spreading throughout the area?

There have been recent postings about the bus bollard and the imminent changes, (ie: the installation of a traffic camera).

This morning when I went out for a walk, I saw a car turn down the road towards the underpass. Finding the bus bollard in place, the driver stopped at the white “give way” line (meant for bus drivers) and he and his passenger got out. They left the car in the road at the white line, ignoring the double yellow lines, and walked under the underpass. As I was walking the same way, I watched them in disbelief as they headed towards the cash point at the HSBC bank, (any bus coming down the road would have had a problem getting round the car)!

Given the other postings on this site about inconsiderate parking – not to mention the seeming increase in litter around the place at the moment (viz the broken glass and empty bottles around the underpass – yet not a single litter bin in sight), and the lack of social responsibility by those inconsiderate people who don’t clear up after their dogs (another phenomenon on the increase around here, it appears – check the pavements), I’m left wondering whether we’re just unlucky to have a seemingly disproportionate number of people in Kingway who think they can do what they want, (if they leave litter or park where they want, it’s not their problem, someone else can clear it up or be inconvenienced, not them); or whether it’s just a selfish and inconsiderate few who are causing most of the problems for the rest of us… Or whether it’s just a sign of the times.

Last week some irresponsible, anti-social persons dumped 2 bags of rubbish in my front garden! It wasn’t kids dumping rubbish, this was a deliberate act of fly-tipping of a couple of bags of rubbish in a couple of Tesco carrier bags – presumably their own dustbins were full, so they were looking to offload their rubbish on someone else. The bags weren’t just thrown into the garden, they had been deliberately placed there.

I contacted the Council and reported the fly-tipping. Apparently, when fly-tipping happens, the Council go through the rubbish left and, if they can find who dumped it (eg: by finding an envelope with an address on etc), they prosecute.

I suppose it’s only to be assumed that – with the new fortnightly waste collection regime, there will be some anti-social people who don’t understand recycling, fill their own bins and then look to dump their extra rubbish elsewhere, passing on the problem to other people! I’ve asked the Council what measures they intend to take regarding such miscreants and will report back.

In the meantime, I’m pleased to say that the Council collected the bags and – with some luck, will be investigating with a view to prosecuting the anti-social fly-tippers.

Watch out for it happening to you.