There are cigarette butts, litter, leaves, weeds and general dirt almost everywhere.

The council workers do a great job cleaning out the main street’s gutters several days a week, but never appear to clean the sidewalks. I rang the council to find out – Why?

I was informed the pedestrian sidewalk is never cleaned by the council as there was no funding allocated for this. I was told to write to the council and voice my concerns.

I did this, and it has been several weeks, and I am still waiting for a reply.

I then read in the Gazette that the council is conducting a survey to get the communities’ ideas on how to spend $200,000 to improve the ‘look’ of each town and village.

To quote the acting general manager Andrew Croke: “They [our town centres] are also the gateways to our Shire and are often the first impression given to visitors”.

Why, then, would the council not see the cleanliness of our main street’s sidewalks as a priority? After all, the business section of the street is only a few hundred metres long!

Council staff need only look at the tourist board in the main street. The ground around it is weedy, often has litter, and is dirty; surely not an impression we want to show visitors to our lovely town!

We try and keep the sidewalk in front our cafe clean, but since the council removed the cigarette butt bins, smokers just throw their butts on the ground or into the rose gardens at the pedestrian crossing as they have nowhere else to properly dispose their butts.

So I ask all Crookwell residents make the effort, complete the survey and/or contact the council and voice your opinion that the cleanliness of our main street is a priority for both locals and visitors.