Recently I had a visit from longtime interstate friends who had come to Adelaide to look around and visit the various sights and sample the wonderful wines & food culture of South Australia.
We drove to the Barossa Valley deciding to use Main North Road through the northern suburbs of Adelaide as our visitors wanted to see a little more of the suburbs and surrounding development.
What we encountered, however, was nothing more than a total disgrace and a huge embarrassment not only for me, but all Adelaide people. We were dumbfounded and left speechless at the disgusting state of roads, footpaths, median strips and so-called ‘natural green belts’.
We drove to the Barossa Valley deciding to use Main North Road through the northern suburbs of Adelaide as our visitors wanted to see a little more of the suburbs and surrounding development.
What we encountered, however, was nothing more than a total disgrace and a huge embarrassment not only for me, but all Adelaide people. We were dumbfounded and left speechless at the disgusting state of roads, footpaths, median strips and so-called ‘natural green belts’.
If a natural bushland setting is what is trying to be achieved by Local Councils & the Department of Transport, Energy & Infrastructure "DTEI", then it has failed miserably. Bushland is not over-run with domestic garden weeds, plants and massive amounts of household rubbish strewn threw long grass and blowing about in the breeze.
Graffiti is rife! I’m not talking ‘street art’ here. I’m talking about tags, scrawls and defacing of any surface possible from senseless small-minded uneducated individuals who have nothing better to do. You can sort of understand graffiti from the above described persons, but when you have adults throwing household rubbish onto verges, it really stinks. I'm not talking about the odd cardboard box or two, but old fridges, TV's etc.
Maybe Main North Road from Gepps Cross to Gawler is going to be upgraded and cleaned up – who knows? But in the meantime, do we need to suffer this pathetic embarrassment. And why the sheep fencing dividing the dual carriageway? I know why it is there, but why “sheep fencing” in this modern time? Surely that can be replaced with high-tensile low height wiring. We live in a City, not on Old MacDonald’s Farm! This same sheep fencing is used along most of the railway lines in the suburbs. Look at the Grange Line on West Lakes Boulevard in Adelaide's West as an example. Surely a more attractive fencing option is worth considering and installing. Adelaide Metro should clean up their land as per their own Environmental Policy as stated on their website (which they constantly breach). Or maybe this Department just consider us to be sheep!? Just go with the flow, put up with the shocking railway conditions and follow each others ass. But I digress….
After this "memorable" encounter en-route to the Barossa Valley, I decided to take a more detailed look around various suburbs all over Adelaide to see if the same pathetic attempt at maintenance is being undertaken by Councils and the DTEI.
One such suburb stood out as a very good example - Mansfield Park. And before any reader cringes, I suggest you visit this suburb. (And for the record I do not live in this area). It is changing dramatically with many new dwellings being constructed. And the dwellings that are there are being looked after by the residents much better than ever before. They have a sense of pride. However, what lets them down is the street maintenance. It is woeful!! If you were to stand in any street in this suburb and visualise the street being cleaned and maintained at a high PROFESSIONAL standard by Council contractors (as it should be!!) you would find that the residents are not the reason as to why this, and many, many other suburbs look so bad. Yes, there will always be those individuals who dump rubbish etc on the verges – however these are few and only need to be educated by the relevant authorities. At present, Council do nothing to help the situation. Posting signs on stobie poles fifteen years ago – ‘Illegal dumping. We’re out to get you’ - does not and has not worked!
Local Councils are receiving more revenue than ever before, mainly from rates payments from higher and higher density living, and yet we are seeing less and less being done on a daily basis in our streets, parks & roadways. Where is the money going? I think we all have a fair idea. And we definitely know it’s not being spent in our street and road maintenance programs.
However two exceptions I have discovered myself relate to the Anti-graffiti programs (usually voluntary) being run through some local Councils. Charles Sturt Council and the Port Adelaide Enfield Council do a brilliant job with their Volunteer Teams. There are bound to be more Teams like this and they are very, very good. I urge residents to seek them out. However, unfortunately, some Council’s such as Walkerville Council (the most expensive council area in the State!!!!) have absolutely nothing to offer. Ironic considering the amount of revenue they attract from their rate payers. This is totally unacceptable. This Council needs to clean up the area and introduce a worthwhile program for its residents, rate-payers and visitors alike!
Why aren't Councils allocating resources to these maintenance areas in line with demand? Time and time again I have been told by my local Council that ….”because of the recent rains, we have experienced high growth rates in weeds and grass” I am told this EVERY SINGLE year…. who would have thought that the winter rains we get, EVERY winter (even in drought), would make grass and weeds grow????!!! And yet time and resources are NEVER pre-empted in readiness to keep the verges and median strips under control and looking presentable. Quarterly verge mowing is NOT enough. And the way the verges are SLASHED (NOT mowed) is pathetic. Large strips are left uncut, rubbish chopped up by blades and spat out and left to blow into peoples gardens and front yards. Edges are not done and the street sweeper collects only half the mess in the gutters. I suppose that’s what you get when you outsource the work and pay "peanuts" - you get a pathetic unprofessional result. If footpaths are too much to maintain then pave them like they have done on North East Road at Collinswood through to Holden Hill or Regency Road from Prospect through to Greenacres and beyond. Or just bitumise the verge & plant a tree instead !!!!
I love Adelaide and I hate how the suburbs EVERYWHERE in this city are being left to overgrow and fill up with rubbish. DON’T let us go the way of filthy Sydney or Melbourne. Adelaide people have more pride and deserve a better environment to live in. We are NOT a third world country, however in some suburbs you might think we are.
KESAB – where are you??? Bring back ‘Keep SA Beautiful’. Where is your media presence?? If you need funding – speak to the Government. They won’t come to you!! Most politicians live in their ivory towers with there private gardeners and street sweepers. Bring the street rubbish and the dumped verge trash to their attention!!
Someone suggested I should run in the upcoming Council elections. My answer - why should I? I pay council rates – exorbitant council rates. I pay taxes, fuel levies and all other costs associated with Council & DTEI maintenance. I want value for my money. I don’t want to have to do it myself. I pay for it to be done for me. And so do you!! But it’s not being done at an acceptable level by any of these Government Departments.
If you've ever wondered to yourself ‘What do the visitors to our city think when they see these eyesores?’ Be assured, they DO NOTICE and they DO FEEL DISGUSTED and they DO TAKE AWAY A BAD IMPRESSION of South Australia’s capital. It’s one of Adelaide being dirty, and having a low socio-economic status. The clean, pretty postcards you buy are mostly false advertising. We are being badly let down by local and state government departments and their ‘contracted workers and co-ordinators’, who are being paid from OUR land rates.
Graffiti is rife! I’m not talking ‘street art’ here. I’m talking about tags, scrawls and defacing of any surface possible from senseless small-minded uneducated individuals who have nothing better to do. You can sort of understand graffiti from the above described persons, but when you have adults throwing household rubbish onto verges, it really stinks. I'm not talking about the odd cardboard box or two, but old fridges, TV's etc.
Maybe Main North Road from Gepps Cross to Gawler is going to be upgraded and cleaned up – who knows? But in the meantime, do we need to suffer this pathetic embarrassment. And why the sheep fencing dividing the dual carriageway? I know why it is there, but why “sheep fencing” in this modern time? Surely that can be replaced with high-tensile low height wiring. We live in a City, not on Old MacDonald’s Farm! This same sheep fencing is used along most of the railway lines in the suburbs. Look at the Grange Line on West Lakes Boulevard in Adelaide's West as an example. Surely a more attractive fencing option is worth considering and installing. Adelaide Metro should clean up their land as per their own Environmental Policy as stated on their website (which they constantly breach). Or maybe this Department just consider us to be sheep!? Just go with the flow, put up with the shocking railway conditions and follow each others ass. But I digress….
After this "memorable" encounter en-route to the Barossa Valley, I decided to take a more detailed look around various suburbs all over Adelaide to see if the same pathetic attempt at maintenance is being undertaken by Councils and the DTEI.
One such suburb stood out as a very good example - Mansfield Park. And before any reader cringes, I suggest you visit this suburb. (And for the record I do not live in this area). It is changing dramatically with many new dwellings being constructed. And the dwellings that are there are being looked after by the residents much better than ever before. They have a sense of pride. However, what lets them down is the street maintenance. It is woeful!! If you were to stand in any street in this suburb and visualise the street being cleaned and maintained at a high PROFESSIONAL standard by Council contractors (as it should be!!) you would find that the residents are not the reason as to why this, and many, many other suburbs look so bad. Yes, there will always be those individuals who dump rubbish etc on the verges – however these are few and only need to be educated by the relevant authorities. At present, Council do nothing to help the situation. Posting signs on stobie poles fifteen years ago – ‘Illegal dumping. We’re out to get you’ - does not and has not worked!
Local Councils are receiving more revenue than ever before, mainly from rates payments from higher and higher density living, and yet we are seeing less and less being done on a daily basis in our streets, parks & roadways. Where is the money going? I think we all have a fair idea. And we definitely know it’s not being spent in our street and road maintenance programs.
However two exceptions I have discovered myself relate to the Anti-graffiti programs (usually voluntary) being run through some local Councils. Charles Sturt Council and the Port Adelaide Enfield Council do a brilliant job with their Volunteer Teams. There are bound to be more Teams like this and they are very, very good. I urge residents to seek them out. However, unfortunately, some Council’s such as Walkerville Council (the most expensive council area in the State!!!!) have absolutely nothing to offer. Ironic considering the amount of revenue they attract from their rate payers. This is totally unacceptable. This Council needs to clean up the area and introduce a worthwhile program for its residents, rate-payers and visitors alike!
Why aren't Councils allocating resources to these maintenance areas in line with demand? Time and time again I have been told by my local Council that ….”because of the recent rains, we have experienced high growth rates in weeds and grass” I am told this EVERY SINGLE year…. who would have thought that the winter rains we get, EVERY winter (even in drought), would make grass and weeds grow????!!! And yet time and resources are NEVER pre-empted in readiness to keep the verges and median strips under control and looking presentable. Quarterly verge mowing is NOT enough. And the way the verges are SLASHED (NOT mowed) is pathetic. Large strips are left uncut, rubbish chopped up by blades and spat out and left to blow into peoples gardens and front yards. Edges are not done and the street sweeper collects only half the mess in the gutters. I suppose that’s what you get when you outsource the work and pay "peanuts" - you get a pathetic unprofessional result. If footpaths are too much to maintain then pave them like they have done on North East Road at Collinswood through to Holden Hill or Regency Road from Prospect through to Greenacres and beyond. Or just bitumise the verge & plant a tree instead !!!!
I love Adelaide and I hate how the suburbs EVERYWHERE in this city are being left to overgrow and fill up with rubbish. DON’T let us go the way of filthy Sydney or Melbourne. Adelaide people have more pride and deserve a better environment to live in. We are NOT a third world country, however in some suburbs you might think we are.
KESAB – where are you??? Bring back ‘Keep SA Beautiful’. Where is your media presence?? If you need funding – speak to the Government. They won’t come to you!! Most politicians live in their ivory towers with there private gardeners and street sweepers. Bring the street rubbish and the dumped verge trash to their attention!!
Someone suggested I should run in the upcoming Council elections. My answer - why should I? I pay council rates – exorbitant council rates. I pay taxes, fuel levies and all other costs associated with Council & DTEI maintenance. I want value for my money. I don’t want to have to do it myself. I pay for it to be done for me. And so do you!! But it’s not being done at an acceptable level by any of these Government Departments.
If you've ever wondered to yourself ‘What do the visitors to our city think when they see these eyesores?’ Be assured, they DO NOTICE and they DO FEEL DISGUSTED and they DO TAKE AWAY A BAD IMPRESSION of South Australia’s capital. It’s one of Adelaide being dirty, and having a low socio-economic status. The clean, pretty postcards you buy are mostly false advertising. We are being badly let down by local and state government departments and their ‘contracted workers and co-ordinators’, who are being paid from OUR land rates.
All Adelaide residents should feel embarrassed and should not sit back and live in this type of environment – YOU DON'T HAVE TO PUT UP WITH IT!!!! I suggest sending emails rather than ringing, and it is far more effective. Not only can you send the emails to multiple people, you have a written record. Go to your Local Council website and find the email address then COMPLAIN AND COMPLAIN AGAIN until you are satisfied with the work.
Use the following website to find and contact your local council. If you're not sure of your council, enter your address and your council area will come up.
If you're renting, don't feel as though you can't complain to the Council. You have every right to complain about rubbish in your street, dead tree's, overgrown footpaths etc.
You may also be interested in a previous article on this blog titled "Is the Tea Tree Gully Council the worst in South Australia"?
http://adelaideviews-isthisfair.blogspot.com.au/2012_11_01_archive.html
Let me show you some of the crap conditions Councils seem OK with:
Click on the pictures to enlarge.
Guest Blogger
You may also be interested in a previous article on this blog titled "Is the Tea Tree Gully Council the worst in South Australia"?
http://adelaideviews-isthisfair.blogspot.com.au/2012_11_01_archive.html
Let me show you some of the crap conditions Councils seem OK with:
Click on the pictures to enlarge.
Guest Blogger
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