It would appear that litter and dog poo are some of the most common complaints in our communities.

To those you can now add wheelie bins being stolen and then set on fire and bottles being discarded on paths, either whole or smashed all over the place.

On the one hand, we have volunteer litter-pickers doing an absolutely fantastic job of making our community cleaner and much tidier and, on the other, we have reports of youths trashing the community as they make their way through it.

Well, I have an idea for those continuing to vandalise the local area. Why don’t you go and live somewhere else where people don’t care what you do or what their community looks like?

If you can’t or won’t appreciate the nice surroundings here, then take yourself off somewhere else.

It was suggested to me that bringing back National Service for delinquent youths might just be the answer but, when I asked a member of the Armed Forces what they thought about that idea, they were not for it at all, as they didn’t see why the Army should have to deal with the problem.

I have also heard a suggestion that communities could hire their own security staff to patrol certain streets at certain times.

Now, for some people, that might sound like a great solution but surely the best solution is to have police patrols for the whole community and not just those parts where people can afford to pay more?

After all, through our taxes, we do pay for a police force – or should that be a police service?

Then again, what about drones being deployed to patrol known problem areas, with our limited police resources then being able to target these hotspots.

Whatever way you look at this problem, there doesn’t appear to be an easy answer.

If you have one, please let others know about it...