Saturday, June 27, 2009

Town Hall earn top marks for English

Leaflet

We found this leaflet in our letterbox which the Ayuntamiento have very kindly translated into English for us.

Whilst the language may not be quite perfect, it is a damn sight better than our Spanish. In any case, the message is clear - treat your town as you would treat your home.

First off dog fouling in the streets. Pam and I were in the town the other day and watched a woman walking her dog. The dog stopped to foul the pavement and when he had finished, the lady just took the dog away leaving the mess for someone to step on. The lady didn’t even have a plastic bag to remove the excreta.

The evidence of the problem is all over the town for you to see. It is both disgusting and most unhygienic especially in this hot weather. I can’t imagine how much more the Ayuntamiento can do; they distribute leaflets, install special bins and impose fines. Still the problems persists. Clearing up your dog’s mess is not the most pleasant task but it is the responsible thing to do. I would argue, if you are not prepared to do then you shouldn’t have a dog.

The second issue is correct disposal of waste. On this score, the Town Hall seem to be winning. There are plenty of  bins around for disposal of waste and lots of recycling points for plastics, glass and newspapers. There even places for clothes and shoes.

Where they are not successful however, is in the disposal of large items which people still insist upon placing by the green bins. As the leaflet explains, the correct thing to do is take large items and things like paint tins, batteries, old microwaves etc to the EcoParque.

The last issue is noise. The Ayuntamiento recognises that some people do like to sleep at night. I imagine that fiesta times  are regarded as an exception!  The closing of the Metro club has improved matters in this respect during weekends of summer.

One of the issues which is not covered in the leaflet is graffiti. I know I’ve mentioned it several times on this blog so you will guess that it is a pet hate of mine. I detest seeing the stuff scrawled over public buildings and even worse, on people’s houses. If you want to create a message for people to see – have it tattooed on your body – preferably your face!

The overall message from the town hall is to be considerate of others, to take care of our town and keep it a safe and pleasant place for people to live.

image

Many thanks to the Ayuntamiento; we are very grateful for the translation and will take careful note of your advice.

1 comment:

Will said...

Totally agree with the remarks about dog-fouling and grafitti. The authorities in Guardamar try hard to clean it away but it comes back. I think some of the local youngsters are disaffected and have little civic pride (just like a lot of youngsters in the UK). Some guy in Guardamar puts his tag on new buildings as soon as they are finished-houses, flats, utility services. Industrial estates are also big targets. Back here, everytime I visit my daughter in Clapham I feel disgusted at the amount of scrawl- Wimbledon station, Clapham Junction, Balham covered in it.