Dear Editor,

I am writing in response to the letter by Daren Bavister in September 26 edition [Council shirking its responsibility].

I can only agree with everything that he says in regard to the state of Basingstoke. We are beginning to look like a third-world country with uncut grass, overgrown hedgerows, and rubbish strewn around – because it is hard to get to the tip.

When the grass eventually gets cut, it doesn’t look much better, because they miss bits and leave the cut grass all over the roads.

We are the fifth richest economy on earth, but you would not believe it.

The councillors should hang their heads in shame, but they won’t do that because these days there is no honour in politics, only excuses and hypocrisy.

If you go out into the countryside, the hedges around fields seem to be kept cut back which makes a mockery of the excuse that leaving everything in a mess in town is good for the wildlife.

But it is not all down to the council, I have seen lovely houses around town where people can not be bothered to clean the paths outside their front doors or cut their hedge back that is growing across the path. So perhaps we can do our bit as householders and then phone the council to complain.

Francis Henry, Roman Road, Basingstoke