People who have used the Garden recently will know, we have two on-going problems in the Community Garden – Rubbish, and Foxes

The fearless local fox who lives in the allotments at the back brings bags of bits in, and takes rubbish and bags from the bin, tears them up and scatters them around the garden.Human beings also leave rubbish – but in the past few months it has been mainly the fox, or maybe foxes.

Volunteers go down to tidy up many times a week, and the brothers from The Red Sea kindly pick up when they open and close, but on some days many parents and carers are now feeling negative about their kids playing in the Garden because of the waste scattered around. The BPCA cannot clean up every morning, and it is not healthy for the Mums and Dads to pick up bits by hand, and so we have started an experiment.

We have made a Litter-Picker Box which will rely on the honesty and decency of local people using the Garden. The Box is on the back of the interior notice board, and the Litter-picker is stored inside. It is there for anyone to use – to pick up any rubbish and put it in the bin. Please do use it if you see rubbish in the garden. And...... The important thing is that people put back the Litter-Picker in the box for the next person to use. Fingers crossed!

Some parents and carers are also worried about the fox. There is one young fox that is so fearless that it does not run away, in fact it comes towards people. Apart from the fact that fox poo is not good for children to play in, there is also a slight chance that the fox might try to grab food from a child. What to do? We don’t want to hurt it, but we do want it to keep out of the garden. Deterrents that emit high-pitched sound deter foxes, but also deter children who can hear them, so they cannot be used. There is no one place we can block up to stop him/her coming in. Please do not feed the fox, and discourage anyone you see doing so. There is a whole family of them on the allotments – so, how can we make the lovely Community Garden a ‘no-go area’ for fearless foxes? Ideas please.