Is Tea Tree Gully Council the worst in South Australia?

I give Tea Tree Gully Council the thumbs down.

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UPDATE: 13/12/2012

The Tea Tree Gully Council has whipper snipped / mown the area's in the photos. This happened approximately 4/12/2012. Apparently someone sent the council an email with a link to this blog, and lo and behold, the offending areas are cleaned up.

The workers did a pretty crap job and left the dried weeds pretty much on the verge after being whipper snipped and/or mown, but let's be thankful at least it's started to be cleared. The rubbish has been cleared up in front of the house on Wecoma Street at Holden Hill (although their front yard remains a pig sty). I don't know whether the council removed the rubbish or it was the householders from where the rubbish appeared to emanate from.

I'm going to keep an eye on the offending area's and report problems to the council as required. I urge you all to do the same - irrespective of what council area you're in.

If you want to report problem areas or disgusting verge maintenance, you can either phone or email your council directly, or leave a message on this blog with the relevant details and I'll contact the council for you. If possible, please include a picture or two and of course, your suburb or council area.

Get Real

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If you have a council you think is worse, tell me.

Why am I pissed off about councils and in particular The Tea Tree Gully Council?

OK, the TTGC, like most other councils in Adelaide, are offering less and less basic services and expect their ratepayers to put up with it.

I am speaking about councils responsibility to maintain the 'streetscape' - or rather their lack of maintaining  your streetscape. Streets are no longer cleaned as often, verges are no longer mown as often and rubbish can lie around for weeks (or longer).

What are we paying rates for? I understand that streetscapes are only part of a councils responsibilities, but it's a damn big part. What is the point of homeowners having lovely gardens and plants, only to have the verges full of weeds and litter. Of course, the council(s) would love you to mow and clean the verge as well outside your property, but there are homeowners/renters etc that believe it's not their responsibility. I maintain my verge because my council - Port Adelaide Enfield - don't do it often enough. I'd have grass and weeds 2 feet high (600mm) if I waited for them to mow the verge.

It's as if councils couldn't care less what their streets look like. A footpath overgrown with weeds and grass looks so bogan like and if you're in an up and coming area, you need all the help you can to bring your streetscape up to scratch. In addition, dead and rotting tall weeds are a haven for snakes and spiders. I wouldn't let my kids near them.

In the absence of council cleaning the verges, it would be fantastic if home dwellers kept their verges mown and clean, but, unfortunately, that doesn't always happen. Councils can't (and should not) rely on home dwellers to do the councils job. Given that, the council should place more importance on providing those services on a more regular basis.

Take the following example:

A friend of mine at Woodville (Charles Sturt Council) contacted his council to advise of overgrown grass and weeds on footpaths. He was told by a council officer "Yes, we understand the situation, but because it's been such a wet winter, spring grass and weeds are growing out of control".

This is an ideal example of a council knowing a problem, but not be proactive and forward thinking. If we experience high winter rains, it is almost dead certain we'll get rapid growth in spring. My question is - Why don't the councils take this into account and organise to mow more often during early spring? Instead of once every 3 months, say once a month? If councils outsource mowing to contractors, surely it's not that difficult to put clauses into contracts to vary the mowing cycle.

I know ratepayers in the Tea Tree Gully Council area are currently being told by council that verges are not being mown because workers are doing fire breaks. Fine, we need fire breaks, and the council can be commended, but why do the fire breaks just before summer? Why not do the fire breaks late in winter when verges are experiencing slow growth rates and not as much mowing is needed? then those council workers would be free to do verges exactly when the grass and weeds start rapidly growing. To me it's common sense.

Do we have the wrong people in council that just seem to be not able to make the right decisions and plan AHEAD? Maybe we need less top heavy councils and more workers on the ground?

A proactive approach

The following is a link to The Local Government Association of South Australia. It has your councils details listed. If you rent and want to become proactive, but don't know what council area you're in, you can type an address, and the site will let you know the council. It will give you a generic email address, but if you send an email, it will forwarded to the right department.

http://www.lga.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=210

My suggestion is that we start making councils more accountable, but before we do that, everybody has to start taking an active interest in what happens in their street and suburb (and even other people's suburbs). Many councils are quite obliging and usually have no problems with your request, but at times you need to let them know what needs to be done. It would be nice if they had 'inspectors' going around the streets and reporting on rubbish, overgrown verges, graffiti etc, but that ain't gonna happen!

• If you think your suburbs verges need mowing, phone or email the council and request the verges to be mown. See if the council can give you a date or even a week when it'll be done. This sets it a little more concretely. If council doesn't do it, call again with a request stating that they said it would be done on  ....
• If you see rubbish or dead tree branches lying around your streets, phone or email the council and let them know rubbish has been dumped, or tree branches are down, in a certain street. You'll usually find the rubbish or branch will be gone in a day or two.
• If you see graffiti in your street, stobie poles, walls or anywhere, again, call or email your council and you may be surprised to know they probably have a graffiti removal team - usually volunteers. But, they rely upon the public to report the matter to council.
• When people make continuous regular requests, you'll find council will put their area on a more regular schedule..... I've found this is whats happening to many areas I have continually requested maintenance in
• I believe having a better streetscape empowers people to want to look after their properties and front gardens better. Most home owners have enough pride to do this anyway, and if a homeowner see's their house is letting the 'street' down, they might feel they should do something about it. Complaints about water being too expensive are stupid and are excuses for laziness. There are many ways of planting up a front garden that uses little water and has low maintenance.

What has got on my goat and got me annoyed enough to make public my thoughts? Check out the following pictures taken around Holden Hill, Valley View area - Tea Tree Gully Council responsibility. How the surrounding homes can lets their streets get like this amazes me. The council needs a kick up the arse for such infrequest mowing and maintenance, and some home dwellers need to start making regular requests to council. To make matters worse, this is not the only time I've seen these verges in this condition. It happens quite regularly. I have even heard of the practice of TTG council workers coming out and mowing a section of verge - probably after a complaint or request - and then leaving the rest of the street unmown. Where's the logic in that?

Lets get proactive and start getting better neighbourhoods!

Check out more on Local Council dislike of spending money in their respective area's

http://adelaideviews-isthisfair.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/are-some-adelaide-suburbs-third-world.html

Get Real

Tea Tree Gully Councils Shame