Our humble opinion is YES! Reading West is fantastic; a cool and super friendly area full of eclectic mixes like the Mosque next to the sex shop and the dancing figures on the roof tops opposite.
There can be no denying that the streets around here are a mess – it’s a depressing reflection on some peoples’ complete disregard for their environment and for other people. Note: we have a Reading-wide problem, plenty of people enjoy our late night take outs. It’s all of our responsibility to tidy it up, or more to the point, to not make the mess in the first place. Certainly the Council can help and here we discuss how to take steps together.
Years ago a shop owner would take as much pride on the pavement outside their shop as they would their home…because many times it was their homes. Big businesses and franchises may bring money to the area but also brings litter and un-owned rubbish. The worst offenders are then as follows; takeaway boxes, cans, glass, paper & bags left blowing in the wind. Let’s think solutions: Definitely charge people like Tescos for clearing up and a Reading tax on cigarettes too. Or try the carrot approach: Make cleaning a certain square foot of area around your shop a condition of slightly lower rents? Small businesses in West Reading would leap at the chance to lower their rents for some normal sweeping and tidying I’d guess. Make sweeping and tidying easier for all- many more bins on side streets and on the school walk home?
A bit of a stick would be notices that state how much litter fines are could also encourage the lazier residents among us (that said, most of us are great, community orientated people). We’d probably need a short film of someone actually being fined to make this believable, available on line and on blogs like ours.
Let’s make a clean start of it. Jet wash the filthy streets and clear chewing gum and cans from strewn pavements. Let’s all go for it, let’s make this look like the cool place to live that it actually is.
