One of the slightly more unusual issues I am currently dealing with as part of my Council duties concerns pigeons on Hexham Road estate. A constituent wrote to me a couple of weeks ago as follows:
'There is a large and increasing flock of pigeons on the estate who make a lot of mess over the block and surrounding area and also a lot of high volume noise around the flats from early morning throughout the day.'
This problem has been raised with me by residents before and seems to be getting worse. I contacted officers who have said that one option for tackling this nuisance includes introducing a Hawk on to the estate in June to scare the pigeons away! I was sceptical about this at first but officers assure me that this technique has been used successfully on the estate before. Obviously expert handlers will be involved and the Hawk will only make a short visit.
Officers will also be writing to all who live in the flat blocks requesting that they refrain from feeding the pigeons and also reminding residents to dispose of their rubbish appropriately as this also encourages the birds to feed.
Glenn Goodall and I met RBC housing officers last week to discuss this issue and more widely progress of a whole range of works designed to improve quality of life for residents on Hexham Road estate - something we have been actively campaigning for, for many years.
We were very excited by what we heard and will be blogging here about specific projects as they come on stream over the coming months. They include work to improve security in flat blocks, tackle parking issues and increase community involvement: issues that residents identified as priorities in the recent estate survey and that we have been highlighting with RBC as ward councillors for years.
It was good to hear that funding for this work will be taken from the new Decent Neighbourhoods Fund agreed in this year's Budget to improve the look and feel of Council estates in Reading.
As Lib Dem housing spokesperson I have been campaigning since 2006 for decent neighbourhoods, not just decent homes.
Before the local Lib Dem campaign, Labour politicians' focus locally has historically been on meeting national "Decent Homes" targets set in Whitehall, failing to invest in the fabric of our estates.
Comments