Harrow Council has earmarked the sum of £250,000 for a cleaning purge of the borough and a small army of additional workers have enthusiastically started on the job of pulling out weeds and grass from the pavements and sweeping that mass of rubbish that our "throw away" society creates.

Extra street sweeping, particularly in the main shopping areas, the removal of graffiti and the cleansing of rainwater gullies is also part of this clean up programme.

Some people I know have already noticed the difference and have commented favourably on newly cleaned parts of the borough. The task is enormous, one of my colleagues has calculated that the road mileage is the same as from Harrow to Manchester.

On Tuesday last week I took the opportunity to visit the young men who were working on the removal of roadside weeds. They were working in the Welbeck Road area of West Harrow and I caught up with them in Tintern Way.

They were equipped with hoes, brooms and a motorised device brought in from Holland to cut down the weeds that were growing in the gutters.

The young men involved were all university students and were spending their vacation working to earn some money to sustain themselves in the new academic year. They worked vigorously and solidly and earned every penny they received.

The proof of their activity was there for all to see. Each day about three tons of weed is taken away in a lorry which they load with the material they remove from our roads.

Whilst all this is going on, there are still people writing to various local papers and to me, as mayor, complaining about, "the state of the borough".

The worrying thing about this lack of awareness by many citizens as to what is going on locally is the fact that the Government has issued a White Paper giving their ideas for the revitalisation of Local Government with particular reference to gaining greater participation by electors in the decision making process.

There is a problem, in my view, in that before residents can come to a decision on anything they firstly must be given and understand the facts. The facts can be published in various forms but it does not mean the people will bother to read and seek to understand them.

If democracy is to work effectively a way has to be found to keep electors "up to date" with whatever is going on in the borough.

The old method was to hold public meetings but, with competition from TV, no one will attend such meetings.

Here is a challenge. What can the council do to improve its information service? Is it enough to issue press releases and hope that local papers will follow up the stories effectively? Is the council's own publication "Harrow People" an effective method of providing information? What does Joe Public think?

o You can write with your ideas to the Harrow Times.

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