As a kid growing up I remember seeing the sweeper man, he would come around with a red cart with a shovel and several yard brushes and would sweep down the paths. The road sweeper would come on the day before and do the gutters of the roads but the sweeper man did the baths and it made for a huge difference to the streets esp one with hordes of kids on it.

Such street maintenance I think is important it is the type of little detail which lifts moral of those who live there and people then respect the area more and petty crime and graffiti is less likely to happen, but the sweeper man is very much something of the past. Yes occasionally there have been Fingal workers out picking up papers and the local kids do a clean up, but as we are on one of the busy route for foot traffic to and from the Blanchardstown shopping centre we get a lot of litter dropped as it’s just the right distance it seems for people to have finished their ice cream, drink or crisps and there are no litter bins.

This morning the street sweeping machines was on the road, I could hear it as I took advantage of the good weather to open all the windows to air the house out, it seemed a lot louder then what I am used to and seemed to be doing several passes. When I looked out I was surprised to see it was a new mini street sweeper.

Designed to be the exact width of the path and it did the road and all the paths so the annoyance of the extra noise soon passed as the road looks a lot better. Amazing what clean paths, roads and trimmed grass verges can do to the look and feel of a place, from unkempt and unloved to trim, tidy and more respectable.