What it's really like to live in Goole

Published on 22nd May 2008 in Letters

Sir - Do you shop at your local supermarket? Do you use a shopping trolley? If so, and you are of a squeamish nature, don't read this letter.

On Friday, May 9 the ERYC refuse collectors emptied the green wheelie bins in this area, however they left behind other rubbish dumped in the lane. This included four supermarket trollies full of rotting food, tins, paper and toiletries (you really don't want the details).

I was so disgusted that I toured the neighbourhood and found a further 19 trollies being used to store refuse. I rang ERYC to find out why this rubbish hadn't been removed and was told it was their policy to only remove the refuse in the green bins. They didn't admit that eventually they would remove the other rubbish when it became a health hazard.

Next I went to Tescos and asked them if they were missing their trollies. They told me that a member of staff regularly trawled the streets collecting abandoned trollies. Inevitably the rubbish did became a health risk and five days later it was removed by ERYC. At 5.45pm on Friday, May 16, I saw a supermarket employee pushing a lengthy column of empty trollies down Milton Street back to the supermarket. After seeing what they contained I will never use a supermarket trolley again.

I've spoken to Goole bin men, who say my experiences are typical of what they find every day in the terraced streets of Goole and that it's probably a specific group in our society responsible for the majority of illegally-dumped waste. Apparently, attempts have been made to prosecute some individuals but these attempts have failed because the courts are not convinced that E.R.Y.C. has done everything to communicate with the miscreants.

This is the reality of living in Goole in 2008. The vast majority of our elected representatives live in the quiet, well-off parts of Goole which probably explains why traffic-calming measures, and bats at Potter Grange, are their main concerns. This might open their eyes a bit.

Paul Thompson

Milton Street, Goole