Ashford resident Andrew Baynes shares anger over 'messy' council-owned land

Transcript

00:00Well my name's Andy Baines, basically I've lived here for 24 years at the moment, 25 next year so

00:06quarter of a century and I'm getting sick and tired of dealing with this mess. I've contacted

00:14them continuously over the last five years and they've trimmed at it, they've cut it back just

00:21enough for me to repair a couple of the fences which I've have done but now it's got to this

00:25stage where I'm really, really fed up. It's starting to eat into a conservatory which I've

00:30done, which I had created. As you can see there's ivy growing up the side and it's now get to the

00:38stage I can't maintain it. If I put weed killer down it's going to affect the wildlife around here.

00:44I've got two pets myself, I've got two dogs and a rabbit and if I put the weed killer down

00:49it could kill my dogs or the rabbit or it could kill any other passing dog, cat or whatever.

00:54And how many times would you say that you've seen KCC down here to come and actually fix the issue?

00:59Probably the number of fingers on my hand, probably. They may have come down when I've

01:03been out or whatever but when I've come back it's very rare to see actually any work have

01:08only been done. And how is it affecting you sort of mentally having this outside your house every day?

01:14Depressing. I'm fed up with it, it's got to the stage I can't maintain it anymore because I'm

01:20not of the best of health. I've suffered from illnesses like long covid, I've had a mini stroke,

01:25my wife can't help me, she's got a degenerative back condition and various other things so she's

01:30not physically capable and neighbours don't do it because really it's backing onto my property so

01:36in the end it's down to me to deal with it. And what would you actually like to see KCC do?

01:41Well first of all get rid of it, earth it, turf it and I'm more than happy to garden down with

01:47a lawnmower every single year, get rid of the cuttings, I'll do it myself, I don't mind doing

01:51that. If they don't want to do that then sell me the land, I'll take it over as part of my property

01:57and I don't want to pay a lot for it because of the fact that I've had 24 years

02:01of having to deal with this. This just is ridiculous, it shouldn't end up like this.