Litter problem is one of education
I AM writing in response to your article in the January 28th issue headed “Street Cleaning Appalling”. It seems to me and to many people who reside in the Hayes area that both Mr McDonnell MP and Councillor Puddifoot are completely out of touch with the reality of what is happening in Hayes. Both of these politically motivated gentlemen obfuscate the real reason why Hayes has a problem by attacking each other and avoiding the real problem out of extreme political correctness and their own self interests.
A mere 20 years or so ago Hayes was a thriving industrial town where the vast majority of the local population had a good job and virtually every other need and convenience on their door step.
These people had a sense of belonging and community which in turn brought about a sense of pride in their town. Today Hayes is virtually void of industry and is packed solid with people from various backgrounds both culturally and geographically, who are often unemployed and living in poor standard accommodation. These people would have little interest in issues such as litter or fly tipping or indeed in the appearance of Hayes, or how it is perceived by others as they face daily struggles and often hail from regions where such issues do not command any priority.
The majority of the street cleaners in the Hayes area do an excellent job, often in difficult circumstances with the minimum of support from the council or local politicians, as is evident by the failure of both Mr McDennell and councillor Puddifoot to recognise their sterling efforts in your article. The problem here is one of education and even handed penalty against offenders.
People need to be educated that littering, fly tipping, spitting etc, are not acceptable and repeat offenders need to be severely fined so that the message gets out there. When these measures are introduced and rigorously enforced I am confident that this blight on our town will improve significantly. However as long as the politically motivated smokescreen remains in place nothing will change and Hayes will co ntinue to limp from one failure to another. to Britain.
Would I be regarded as an old cynic if I were to suggest that it was to avoid any possible constitutional obstacles that might prevent him becoming Prime Minister?
Mr Johnson also claims that he wishes to cease paying taxes to America but surely this is not a new situation for him. When you pay very expensive accountants to handle your tax affairs (see his tax declaration on-line) one would expect them to make their client fully conversant with his tax liabilities, equally one assumes that he would have to authorise the payments when they were due
Perhaps we might ponder on the inference that if one needs to employ expensive accountants then the amount of tax that he avoids paying must be in excess of their very high fees, otherwise they, the accountants, would not be cost effective. Not illegal to AVOID paying tax, we all do it to a greater or lesser extent, but with all the moralising that politicians are currently indulging in, where does Boris stand? What becomes increasingly clear is, that Boris is not for Britain and certainly not for Hillingdon, but Boris IS for Boris. Clearly he is bucking to become Prime Minister and he is trying to do it at the expense of the electorate of Hillingdon. It would appear that Mr Johnson is restricting his ambitions somewhat, since, by renouncing US Citizenship he loses the opportunity to become Prime Minister, Mayor of London, MP for Hillingdon and President of the United States all at the same time.
Must be a relief for Hillary!