Here we go again. Volunteers are beginning to make our green spaces look lovely and the problem of stolen plants rears its head again.
Keith, one of the Cleveleys volunteers, had spent a lot of time with some others, putting plants into the pots all over town. He’s been dragging a bowser from home to water them frequently, and a lot of time, love and attention has already been invested.
Stolen Plants
But someone has decided they like the look of the geraniums that have been bought for the planters. Obviously somebody took a fancy to the sight of them and thought ‘that’s mine’. Why should they buy one when there’s a plentiful supply in Cleveleys town centre? Regardless of the dedication that people have put in to make the town centre attractive to visitors and residents.
To me it seems that if vandals had done it, they would have pulled more out and trashed them onto the floor, as yobbos do. But the fact that one has disappeared cleanly and tidily suggests that someone older has spirited it away…
After not being able to do this for over a year it’s lovely to see the pots in full flower once again. A small group of volunteers work tirelessly in the town centre. They make the garden on Rough Lee Road look pretty too. So how can people have the mentality that it’s ok to do what they want – and trample them down or pinch them.
Stolen Plants Season
It’s not just Cleveleys either. The Friends of Stanley Park in Blackpool have had a large number of new, expensive roses stolen as they tried to restore a rose bed. When you look at Facebook you see similar reports from volunteer groups all over the country, not just here on the Fylde Coast.
There’s been stolen plants before in Cleveleys too. When they’d last been gardening in Cleveleys before covid quite a few had gone missing. Someone, later found to be a gardener, was pinching plants that the volunteers had put in to resell in the jobs they were doing for unsuspecting customers. They made a tidy profit, while ripping off the person they were doing it for, who was totally unaware!
The poor woman who paid for the privilege of having her garden planted with stolen plants was mortified when she discovered that her ‘gardener’ had been pinching them, not buying them. Talk about cheek, how could he, it beggars belief how low some people will go. I certainly couldn’t do it, as I’m sure you wouldn’t, but the sad fact is that if they are caught nothing happens to them.
Thin End of the Wedge
Plant theft is classed as trivial, but it’s the thin end of the wedge. It makes volunteers question why they bother, which is a slippery slope to a complete lack of community pride. As with all the vandalism in the town centre when youths decided to wreck over a thousand pounds worth of boards that had been put up in the bus station. The police knew who did it and guess what, not much happened, with us left picking up the bill.
Petty crime and vandalism is as important as a bigger crime and while ever they get away it they are going to carry on. The parents should have paid the bill and then they might be more interested in what their youngsters are doing. The ring leader was a well known and persistent offender.
When people are willing to give up their spare time to look after the town and make it more attractive, it’s soul destroying to see that some people think it’s ok to damage or pinch what they want to. One day these wayward people will see their bad behaviour bounce back to them, as sure as eggs are eggs. Just leave our flowers alone.
We’ve all been ‘bored’
If I hear the sentence ‘we’re bored, there’s nothing to do’ once more I think I might scream my head off. What an excuse. We’ve all been bored when we were young. We’ve all been there and got the tshirt. But we wouldn’t have dreamed of going out and vandalising our town or doing the things some kids do today. It’s called parenting, where parents had children and knew they were their responsibility. Not the schools, teachers or whatever. We were taught right from wrong and no matter if you were bored, you found something to do. Not smash thousands of pounds worth of property, vandalise the bus station and then sign your name on the wall. How cocky is that!
The worrying thing is that we have generations of kids who are fearless of the law or anything to do with authority. They think they can do and say what they want it and shouldn’t be like that. They should be taught respect – not to laugh at policemen and tell them to ‘….off’ which is what they say when tackled.
The Wrath of Mother
I would be ashamed if my daughter carried on like that I can tell you. My full wrath would descended on her and she’d be stopped in her tracks. Whereas today, a lot of parents seem to let them do what they want, and then defend them.
Before I finish, I must make it clear that there are a lot, in fact a vast majority, of good kids out there with good homes. I’m certainly not saying all children are bad. But the bad ones grow up and have children with the same attitude of ‘do what you want’ and that worries me.
What the answer is I don’t know. I despair of ever finding a solution. Discipline and respect is so sadly missing today, but it needs bringing back!!
Other blogs you might be interested in:
- Normal Bank Holiday Weeks are Back
- My Latest Stupid Adventure…
- What a funny week
- The cake crawl that wasn’t
- Perpetual Motion
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