ASHLEY Road has been awarded a community warden.

This is good but let us not lose sight, we lost community police officers in our high street near ten years ago. A huge rise in anti-social behaviour over many years, and finally, because it has got so bad, we are awarded, in competition with other areas, a community warden.

Decent well-maintained areas go hand in hand with low anti-social behaviour. The world knows this and has known this for decades.

As it is we have huge fly-tips on private land in the centre of Ashley Road car-park areas. The tips have been reported time and time again over many months yet council refuses to act.

And I do mean tonnes of rotting fly-tip, much under canvases and in containers so what is there, who knows.

And why wont council act? Because they tell us the fly-tipping is on “private land”. This then is BCP council trying to get away with not recognising they have all the powers and more needed in environmental laws to require land owners to act to clear their land. And with costs and penalties.

That all said Ashley Road is a great shopping centre. Over a hundred great shops. Staff in all stores could not be more helpful. It is a pleasure to use the high street every day.

What lets us down massively is our council, and councillors. No major effective forum to work on issues as a matter of course week in week out. And landlords – in near all cases absent landlords taking not a grain of interest in the state of properties and land.

Street wardens will we hope deal with such issues as day-time drinking and that is good. But then of limited value when we have massive fly-tipping – “anti social” on a gigantic scale – yet no-one, landlords or council, taking responsibility.

JEFF WILLIAMS

Jubilee Road, Poole