Open letter to Marickville Council

Dear Marrickville Council, Don't fret, my family did your job for you. Cleaned the whole street. Gathered up the old McDonald's wrappers, the beer bottles, the coffee cups, even the white and fossilised dog crap.

We swept up the leaves, the dirt, the shards of broken glass and the cigarette butts. We weeded around the spindly trees you planted and then deserted to the mean streets of Enmore.

After months of your neglect, it came to this. Meg got dirt on her heels and a ladder in her stockings. Shocking, I know. And child labour: Em is only 12. How could you? Does it disturb you that just one side of the street on one block resulted in seven bags of disgusting, putrid garbage? I had to carry these bags THROUGH MY HOUSE. And a liquid, brown and sticky that I hope to god was Coke, spilled on my jeans.

Perhaps a little street cleaning on behalf of the Council to whom we pay our rates would be in order?

Just a thought.

Anyhoo, would you mind picking up the garbage from the back lane? We'd be terribly grateful. Yours sincerely,

Rate-Payer Who Wishes She'd Cleaned Up and Spoken Out Before the Election