Friday’s clean up of the BMX track at Upton Lane went really well. My thanks for the team of RAF trainees from RAF Shawbury (not Cosford) for coming along and helping with the clean-up. They explained that on Thursday they had taken their first solo flight and so had Friday off from flying and like trainees before them take part in a community activity project. My thanks also to the three SABC workers who strimmed and cut down the overgrown weeds. I know you were’nt to happy but at the end of the day you saw how much better the area looked and before we had finished heard appreciative comments for local residents. The team managed to fill a long loading skip with tree branches, kitchen units, bricks and much more. The area at the beginning of the clean up looked an overgrown mess, hard to tell it was a BMX track and by the afternoon you could see the full track and all corners of the site, no hiding places there for a while anyway. Before we left there were a couple of young lads came along and tried out the track. They thanked everyone for making the track safer for them and as a group of hoodies passed they were heard to say “Cool, that looks well better”.
It does look better but we need to look after it and invest in regular maintenance. If it is maintained I’m sure it would cut down on the anti-social behaviour and drug dealing that happens here when it’s overgrown.
Another problem that not only happens in Upton Lane but in all our recreation areas is dog fouling. THIS IS BIG. I know that dogs need exercise and that when you arrive at the recs the dogs are let off to run around and there are responsible dog owners who clear up after their dogs but there is an awfully lot of people who don’t. Dog muck at Upton Lane is bad. What can we do about it? Should there be someone there monitoring? Should we be fining dog owners who allow their dogs to foul the football pitch/ bmx track/ play area and do not clean up? What do you think. What do you do with the bags of dog muck after cleaning up? Some people deposit the dog muck in the litter bins. I know there’s no where else to leave it, but the bins are situated either next to or inside the children’s play areas and the bins are sometimes only emptied once a week so as you can imagine they are not very pleasant. Also some teenagers seem to take pleasure in chucking these bags of excretement around for fun. So if you can take your dog bags home with you, it is better for everyone. I know it’s not nice carrying it and you just want to get rid of it as quickly as possible.
I finish by asking you the next time you are at a rec with your dog spare a thought for the children in the play areas or the football teams playing on the pitch, or our the kids on their BMX track.
I’ll stop now but comments on any of the above would be welcomed.
