On Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:36:53 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

Mogga wrote:
On Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:40:06 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

A friend has a cotoneaster hedge which has fireblight. Its total demise
in the affected parts seems inevitable since it is opposite the gates of
a secondary school and miscreants hit the hedge with sticks on a daily
basis so the bruised bark is easily infected. I am not sure if anything

Do they bring their own sticks? If not, remove the source of the
sticks first.

I honestly don't know where they get the sticks from, but I would hazard
a guess that they snap them off other neighbours hedges. Certainly
whilst I was pruning out the worst dead wood on Saturday a lad walking
down the street was smashing hell out of neighbouring hedges as he went.

They have broken a few dead stems of around 1" diameter off this old
established hedge too. But the bulk of the damage to living wood is
bruising. Given the incidence of fireblight I reckon it is terminal.

Without excessive pruning there'll always be bits for them to break
off. I'd be tempted to get brambles growing through the lot.


Incidentally when I was at school there were litter squads sent out to
tidy up after the icecream van, but in this location it appears that the

When I was at school litter picking was a punishment apart from one
day a year when the entire school tipped out with bags to collect all
the litter from the grounds. We weren't allowed out of school though
and for the most part people stuck to this.

There was always an icecream van outside our school gates...

Lucky you.


The local authority will have a department who's job it is to pick
litter up and address the problems. I think these days it is tragic
but need to have mobile cctv vans to catch litter droppers and fine
them and then give them hours of picking litter up as a punishment.

Our council has a website you can post images of litter to
http://www.tidyoldham.co.uk

Local councillors may be interested in helping, but it's a long time
off the next election.

Their idea of helping was to put up the penalty signs.


Get back on to them and then get in touch with the local paper who may
well come down at rubbish dropping time. Be prepared to scowl for the
camera though

Do you have PCSOs for your area? They are supposed to be the eyes and
ears and if there's damage being caused you can report it to the
police (We have yobs dancing through our hedge when they're drunk) -
ring and log it - ask for a log number, say you don't need a visit
really - and keep a log of the incidents.
Yes it is petty but it'll cost you money to put new plants in, so make
it an issue that keeps cropping up with the police and they'll start
coming down and lurking about which would help a bit.



Regards,
Martin Brown
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