SATURDAY afternoon, July 28, we phone 101 to report drug dealing every Sunday at 2am behind the fence of our apartment block. The police make a sweep, and later when cars cruise by, the dealers have gone.

10am Sunday. The bus shelter on Bath Road/Lansdowne has been vandalized. Shards of jagged glass litters the area from the shelter to the road. I phone 101, then Yellow Buses. Line busy so resort to email.

Feeling impotent, I remember Malala"s famous quote, "One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world”. I take a broom to the bus shelter. A neighbour shrugs, "Council will clean it tomorrow." But how many wheelchair users, exuberant children, teens focused on smart phones, frail and vulnerable OAPs might fall and be seriously injured by then?

I sweep. No one asks why; no one says "Thank you”. No one makes eye contact. My broom becomes an experiment in social consciousness. Does anyone care? Maybe the young woman who seems to be photographing me over her shoulder. Shattered glass and indifferent citizens symbolize a community on the verge of shattering itself.

Let's all pick up the metaphorical broom and sweep our community safe. Email epic.reporting@bcpcouncil.gov.uk which collects data on antisocial behaviour. Attend council surgeries. On Saturday in the Bournemouth Central Library, newly-elected Cllr Hazel Allen says hers is the first held there in 10 years because no one ever came.

Show up. It takes a community to save a community.

SHEILA SOBELL-EVERY, Bath Road, Bournemouth