Thursday 14 August 2008

Water Feature clean up




Such a shame the water feature on High Row in Darlington is known imaginatively as "The Water Feature". Couldn't the Council have come up with a cute name for it: Stairway to Heaven, The Market Steps, Williams' Folly or something?



Whatever, when I was splashing about in it on Tuesday it was looking very sad: blackish-green slime had appeared in a matter of a few weeks and was spreading fast. This is a job for Street Scene, I thought. Democratic Services kindly directed my request to the appropriate officer and the very next morning there they were: three vans and half a dozen blokes cleaning it. Well done Street Scene, but a few scrubbing brushes would have done a better job than the pressure hose and why didn't anyone else notice what a state it had become?




Now our "Expensive Chinese Marble Steps With Bar Code Imagery And Water Tumbling Down Them" are clean(ish) again: just in time for this weekend's glorious Market Spectacular, when the town centre will be taken over by market stalls from across the country and Europe with street entertainers too. Fun for all the family, it says here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Mike Glad to see your support moved along the cleaning of the water feature. I say support because the request to have this cleaned had already been made. several days before you raise the matter. I had requested it cleaning in time for the 10km road race on Sunday. But we have achieved together without signing a LIB/Lab pact. Thank you for your support.

Cllr I G Haszeldine

Mike Barker said...

I thought the response was a bit quick, Ian!

Mike said...

I noticed a week or so ago that the water feature had developed some lovely green and black mould again.

Last week, it seemed to have been switched off, drained and scrubbed.

A few people were sitting on the steps where usually water would flow. As it's beneath the ramp, it actually makes a very nice sitting area.