For the third week running a small team of volunteers has used their Sunday evening to make our town that bit better. This week they cleared Commercial Street – often described as our town’s indie gem – of large weeds and sprayed the rest with weedkiller. The street boasts well-known independents like Bean & Bud, Crown Jewellers, Beks electrical and the Cheeseboard among others.
In previous weeks the team has cleared the badly overgrown area next to the railway bridge on Bower Road (actually owned by Halfords who hadn’t cleared it despite a letter from the County Council), the area around the one arch, Oxford Street, Cambridge Street, the lower part of Beulah Street and lower Station Parade.
So far the team has consisted of local councillors but Council Leader Richard Cooper is asking more people to volunteer.
Richard commented:
What I am hoping to see is a group of volunteers who will spend an hour each Sunday evening doing those little things that make our town look extra special.
Community efforts like this are common in the villages and places like Starbeck are well-known for their community spruce-ups. I want Harrogate town to be the same.
So it may be picking up a few weeds, making a note of where there is graffiti so we can contact the owner of whatever it is on and get it cleaned up, cataloguing those awful green cable boxes that have doors hanging so we can tell the telephone company or giving information signs a wipe down -it’s all part of giving our town that bit extra.
We have seen recently talk about whether or not the town is in decline. I don’t agree that it is. We have had a problem with street begging but working together various local charities, the police, traders, the council and local businesses are working to sort that out. But if people want Harrogate to be even better than let’s get together and make it happen.
If a shop needs some help painting its frontage let’s see if we can get a team out to help them. If we want even more hanging baskets round town over the summer let’s see if we can source them and water them. It’s a better approach than wanting something better for our town – something extra special – but not doing anything to make it happen.
If you want to get involved in regular spruce ups in and around the town centre please contact Richard Cooper on richard.cooper@harrogate.gov.uk.
The team goes out at 6pm on Sunday evenings.
Not sure about this. Our local council has agreed cuts in services over the past years and we have all observed the consequences as standards are reduced. Now after jobs have gone our local councillors volunteer to do the work they cut.
What a mad world.