Yes indeed, Harry, beware the warts

There’s a nice irony in last week’s Harry Bell column (Their Filthy City Could Be Heaven, It Could Be Hell, Gazette, July 14).

Your columnist criticises a Facebook page called Canterbury Grot-spots, which identifies problems with litter, rubbish bins and abandoned supermarket trolleys.

After briefly acknowledging that the page “can count some successes”, he deplores the fact that some people use it to bang on about everything they think is wrong with the city.

So what does he proceed to do? He uses the rest of the column to bang on about everything he sees as wrong with the Grot-spots page and forget about its successes.

There is at least a touching moment of self-knowledge in the article.

After pointing out that “there is something perversely intoxicating in focusing exclusively on the warts and scabs”, he adds “Those like me who work in newspapers can’t pretend we don’t do this”.

No indeed – and this article is a classic example!

The fault he finds with Canterbury Grot-spots is nothing to do with that particular Facebook page.

It’s a built-in problem with Facebook in general.

We know that people find it all too easy and all too tempting to fire off their instant moans and express their feelings on Facebook without stopping to think.

Please can I encourage your readers to look past that drawback and make positive use of the Canterbury Grot-spots page.

It is monitored by council officers and Serco and it is an effective way of alerting them to litter problems and getting things done.

It won’t turn a “filthy city” into a “heaven”, but it can prevent it from being a “hell”. Richard Norman St Michael’s Place, Canterbury