How Can We Balance Nature Conservation and Public Safety?
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Don't know how tidy your street is but the inhabitants of mine seem to think it's fine to litter the streets and allow uninhibited growth of bushes and grass etc.
The council only cut the grass on the verges and apparently the new policy is to just leave the grass cuttings lying where they fall. This means constantly cleaning up the mess carried by shoes wherever you go and, worse, blocking drains which no one seems to have thought of.
Recently a motor cyclist died on a dual carriageway near me as the metal barrier could not be seen due to the height of grass and weeds allowed to grow wild.
Lazy residents are letting bushes overhang the pavements which impedes those with disabilities and the blind, as well as young mums with prams.
When i retire i will spend time tidying the area nearby of litter and dangerous growth but i bet some jobsworth will want to fine me for doing so.
I agree it's terrible. Where I live people drop litter. Smash glass bottles on the ground which is terrible for dogs. Plus dog poo everywhere. There's lots of bins but don't use them. I agree with grass I don't know why the council don't pick it up there use to then sell it as compost.
The property we rent is on a hill so the bin men won't collect rubbish from our front doors. We have shared rubbish bin area, however it's permanently used as a tip by people from all over the city who feel its OK to dump it here instead of taking it to the tip! Then the bin men make a huge mess emptying it all so rubbish is permanently blowing all over the street. People just don't seem to care about living in a messy horrible street.
Midnightflower that is absolutely disgusting, I bet the council are more than happy to take your council tax though. They should send a collection vehicle out once a week to collect the fly tipping stuff and whilst there clear up the mess.
Lynibis Yep and we pay a service charge for the bins. They rebuilt them last year but didn't do anything about access so it's still open to the public to dump whatever they want. If they would just install a camera I'm sure it would put people off.
Midnightflower if you feel up to it why don't you write to the council and get everyone in the street to sign, ask them to write also.
When I worked for council we once received a single complaint and had to change our whole system of working causing more stress. I saw same thing on tv weeks ago about a single complaint that was acted upon and was not really justified. I would stress that the service you receive is not the same as others in area, why can't they send a truck round weekly and that it is unhygienicand and is creating a rat problem! People Power 
Lynibis That's a great idea. I will talk to my neighbour and ask him to help as he's been here for over 30 years and knows alot of the residents.
Lynibis Many councils now are spending more on interest payments than services so many services are being scaled back. The reality is council tax payments will keep going up and services will keep being reduced. Of course it varies by area but I think we have to understand there is a huge financial crisis in this country and we are getting significantly poorer. Council services will be reducing for a long time into the future. We haven't even started paying off the capital of our debts yet. Councils are just paying interest. When we come to our senses are realise these debts are the problem and start paying the capital of them then services will be even more dramatically reduced.
BonzoBanana I understand but having worked for the council for 26 years I could scream at the wastage of money. I mean money spent on overpriced equipment, beanos for councillors with their free drinks and lunches. The waste of money I see in my current job disgusts me and I know how they could save thousands weekly, but of course who cares when they are spending other people's money.
Lynibis That's is going on everywhere which is why such corruption and theft basically needs to be stopped as a priority especially when there is going to be far less money available anyway. A lot of people in this country are going to be facing huge poverty in the coming years the likes we haven't seen for maybe 70 years or more and it is obscene how much money is wasted by some people who have no moral compass at all.
BonzoBanana They need to tackle theft and corruption from the top B, starting with the government 
I keep the front of my home tidy. My husband weeds the kerb. My mother has a large hedge with one side on a public path so I cut that for her. If everyone done their bit outside their own home everywhere would look so much better.
I do litter picking in my local area but it can be so disheartening to clear a street then return in a few weeks and it’s a mess again. Unfortunately people who are in the habit if littering rarely change.
I was sat in school carpark yesterday and watched school children deliberately throwing litter and laughing about it. They was in high school
Imnotcheap that is part of a wider issue of discipline for kids these days. There is no discipline so they do as they like knowing adults can't do a thing about it.
Fortunately, I live just off a main road that the council are very keen in making sure is clean - so litter close to home is always cleared promptly by them. There are plenty of other spots where I live that need attention though! Sad that people are too lazy to take rubbish home or put it in bins.
Lynibis I agree with you. Where I live on a main road, the council keeps it clean and tidy. Twenty minutes by bus some areas wouldn't look out of place in a third world country. The recycling bins are used for household rubbish, litter everywhere, dog mess visible, etc. It is obvious their councillors doesn't care one bit.
Take your secateurs and snip a bit off what is overhanging on pavement discreetly each time you pass. 
JLouM ... 
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That was my road 2018, it had been there 2 days so I bagged all the food up & took it home & put it in our bin,took this photo & sent it to the person who is supposed to represent tenants / home owners..
Only yesterday across from my home someone had left a huge plastic dome containing left over Chocolate & Cream cake,I put it in a carrier bag in my bin,enough vermin around here,don't need to encourage more..I have no houses across the road,only gardens belonging to the houses in front..
janphoenix51 sadly this is an all too common scene. I also have no houses opposite as it is the side fence of a garden of a house just around the corner, it often looks like that. Some even dump several rubbish sacks there, not sure why!
Lynibis....On the next road to us there was a huge bag with the contents spilling out,top of the gennel at one side as we drove past last night at 6.30pm,there were black bags of rubbish dumped..This road only has back gardens of the main road at one side & the field at the other side I mentioned in posts before.
Sheffield City Council clear it regularly but it's soon full of all sorts of crap again!
JLouM ...I used to carry Nail Scissors when my daughter was in her pram as a toddler & cut the thorns back just across our road which is a narrow steep concrete slope I have to walk down to the main road.
When she went to High School I used to walk her down across that road to steps on a gennel then to the bus stop on main road.
I got absolutely sick of having my clothes snagged.One day I spent a whole 2 hours with my secateurs cutting the thrones coming from gardens at each side after taking my girl to bus stop.Some passersby thanked me asking f I lived next to the gennel ,NO I said showing them my neat garden on my mobile,just sick of clothes getting ruined so decided to do something...
A lad at one of the houses called his Mum,I told her about the thornes,she told me that I had nothing better to do ,shouting at me,I told her that I had a child,worked & ran a home before walking away. as there was no reasoning with her..
These days I carry my secateurs in my Rucksack & use them to cut the thornes where I work as the service user I was supporting couldn't get past without getting her clothes caught thornes were that long!
Places4people take note!!
janphoenix51 Well done and good for you! Sometimes people just don’t care for safety of others.
RegularComper90 it saddens me that neighbours no longer work together to try and solve these problems. I know the family on one side very well and we get along famously, on the other side is the divorced husband of a fairly close friend, we observe the niceties but that's about it. The rest of the neighbours can't even raise their heads to say hello
RegularComper90 ...Next road to us is as well,there is a field with a big steel fence to stop dumping..So now it's dumped in front of that, everything from piles of old tyres to mattresses, council do remove it but the mess is replaced by another lot every week..
About 7 years ago 2 armchairs were dumped across the road to the right of our home..I discreetly took a photo then walked the 10 min to the bus ...I got the bus & someone I knew who worked on Nuisance Neighbours part of Sheffield Council got on & we sat chatting together as we usually did,I showed him the photo & the next day the chairs had vanished...
Thank you Chris Howells..
janphoenix51 I definitely think people need to be more proactive rather than just accepting this. Well done to you too for your efforts
Lynibis ..Exactly ,I know quite a lot who do but their efforts are spoiled by the selfishness of others!
The problem is people have no respect for anybody or anything nowadays, showing they have no respect for themselves
I often see a car driving past and someone throwing rubbish out the windows , quite often it is a fast food container or drinks cup
They just dont care, they are like fly tippers , too lazy to take the rubbish to the correct facilities and cutting corners on cost , so they just dump anywhere in the road
Not only individuals but businesses doing this on a larger scale
The planet is already suffering an environmental disaster from pollution of the atmosphere , rivers and seas, we dont need more on Terra Firma, there is enough already with landfill
telmel ....I used to clean for a Dr & his wife in Sheffield years ago a lovely caring couple I became friends with who did their best for everyone,worked voluntary in Africa & travelled the world.
Angie the wife was telling me years ago about two lads who were sat in a car & after eating their takeaway threw the reminding contents out of the window as she was walking by their car almost hitting her.
Angie picked up the contents of the lads meal & pushed them back inside before walking off! The lads were speechless!
The late Angie Vennalls you were one in a million,gone but your memory lives on! Xx
It annoys me that people allow their hedges to grow so big that it takes up the pavement leaving no room for pushchairs and wheelchairs. They should be fined but our council ignores it.
Pjran ...Yes I know that one too well,there are a few houses like that around where I live & the pavement is built on a concrete slope..
Our street is very well maintained. Sometimes the grass at the front of people's houses gets a little long but if doesn't impede anything.
Ohh that's so sad to hear about the motor cyclist 
Our street is disgusting .. and there is not a bin in sight. Yet I can walk in another area and it's so tidy 
Yes I would be very careful about tidying up their mess .. instead of recognising your good intentions a jobsworth will definitely fine you if he could
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