Winsor asks homeowners to clean it up

By Craig Westcott

Holyrood council has resolved to crack down on owners of dilapidated properties.

“I think this is important,” said councillor Steve Winsor, who chairs the Town’s public works committee. “There was one time when Holyrood won a Tidy Towns award, and I cannot imagine that happening in the current state. We want to work with residents, we want to work with our businesses, we want to work together to have a town that everybody is proud of.”

With that, Winsor tabled a motion to write a number of property owners asking that “they give attention to improving the appearance of their property and removing unsightly debris and other objects for both aesthetic and safety reasons.”

The motion was seconded by councillor Bruce King.

Winsor said the properties on the list, which were not named publicly, were identified through various means, “not just (by) ourselves.”

“It really does need some improvement and we really do want to move that forward and have a beautiful town and maybe one day be a contender for the Tidy Towns award once again,” he added.

“I totally agree with councillor Winsor,” said King. “It also is a fact that if you live next to me and you’ve got old cars there and old wrecks and garbage and stuff like that, not only is it affecting your property, but it is also affecting the value of my property and the property next to it. And with all the different resources that we have today, there’s absolutely no excuse for garbage.”

King noted social media is littered with local examples of trash being tossed right next to garbage boxes. “I know that in some of the cases, yes, the birds do get into some of the garbage can and they flick it out,” he said. “The other part of it is, people seem to always direct their (blame) to the teenagers and the kids. It’s not always the teenagers and the kids. A lot of the people who are tossing stuff out of the window are people who are old enough to have a driver’s licence, so they’re not kids. I’ve seen it myself where people have rolled down the window, right next to a garbage can, and flicked it out and off they went.”

King said he is hoping that when the property owners get the letters, they will realize council is right and they will clean up their grounds. “That would be great if it happens,” he said.