I was extremely delighted to hear today about the Governments latest plans to tackle the problems of home owners who use their gardens as dumping grounds.
As far as I am concerned there is nothing worse than a house with the garden full of rubbish. It only takes one such property to blight an entire neighbourhood.
Being a home owner brings a certain level of responsibility and keeping the area looking nice and pleasant is extremely important especially if you are to blend in with those living around you.
Personally I think the fine of £100 is a little light and a figure of £1,000 would be more of a deterrent but at least something is finally being done about this often ignored area of anti-social behaviour.
It will be interesting to know who will issue the fines. It would be a shame to detract the police away from their current jobs.
Perhaps the powers the be could ask for volunteers to step forward to carry out inspections of the houses in the town and issue fines when required? Even my good self would probably step forward to help in the battle against this menace.
But why stop at those who dump rubbish in their gardens?
A few months ago regular readers may remember that I called for those who let their grass grow too long also to be fined. Surely an untidy garden is just as bad as a garden full of rubbish?
All it would need is for the wardens who patrol the area to be issued with tape measures and if between April and September the grass at a house is longer than six inches a fine would automatically be issued.
You may think I am potty for suggesting fines for long grass but its often the overgrown gardens that harbour rats, mice and other vermin which spread out into the neighbouring properties.
I would also like to see a policy introduced where home owners can pay a small charge to have the road outside their home yellowed lined or reserved for their own parking.
Almost every day there are cars parked outside my own home and its most off putting looking out of my drawing room window at some old banger which belongs to the bloke ten doors away.
If the owner doesn't want it outside their home why should I have to look at it while sitting at the dining table eating my evening meal?
The sooner I can get my Booker Common conker trees planted at the front of my home the better. The possibility of a dent on the bonnet or broken windscreen caused by a falling conker is a sure way to deter people from parking.
If people could rent the road space outside their own homes they would always have a parking space thus solving the problem of not being able to park outside your own home.
The scheme would be excellent for the long suffering residents of Harwood Road in Marlow who are currently blighted with the sixth form children from a near by school parking their cars in the road.
It would also bolster the incomes of the powers that be with all that extra revenue generated by the scheme.
Well, I hope they soon get the system up and running for fining those with rubbish in their front gardens.
If you should look out your window and see a rather smartly dressed, portly gentleman wearing a flat cap standing outside your house writing out a ticket it may be yours truly in the process of handing you a hundred pounder for having a messy garden.
What do you think?
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