Surgery yesterday

I do apologise for not giving notice of our regular surgery held yesterday at St Johns church Purewell, in my defence it has been a very busy week with daytime and evening meetings just about every day. More about that later. A steady stream of residents attended and again we had to tackle issues ranging from litter and rubbish clearance to neighbour disputes. It does seem to me that there is a small percentage of people who have no idea of what community spirit is all about and appear to go out of their way to create disharmony. I include in this collective those responsible for the graffiti which has suddenly appeared Borough wide. Most of the concerns and issues brought before us yesterday have arisen because some people have no idea of the consequences of their action and in fact don't care much either. Changing this attitude is very challenging! Included is dog fouling, as a gentleman explained his difficulty of pushing his wife who is wheel chair bound, through paths littered with excrement and the cleaning process he has to go through before he can manoeuvre the chair back into his home. Every dog owner I speak to says that they clean up after their animal, so if that is the case where does all this excrement come from and why is it prevalent in paths that are not in open view? Neighbourhood disputes are perhaps the most difficult to deal with especially when they include an element of anti-social behaviour or harassment. Thankfully these are few but yesterday just like buses, two came along at the same time. Monday will see the start of some action to deal with matters. A challenging morning but it included good communication with our PCO Sparky who is always a great help in seeing that the ward is trouble free.