‘Council has left neighbourhood in a mess for years

A furious dad says he is “completely fed up” of council-owned land outside his house being left a “total mess”. Andrew Baynes has lived at his property in Newlands, Ashford, for 24 years and claims Kent County Council (KCC) won’t maintain the plot despite contacting the authority consistently for a number of years. The 58-year-old says seeing the overgrown patch of land on the Washford Farm estate on a daily basis is making him “angry and depressed”.

Mr Baynes says he regularly tidies up the weeds himself, but due to various health issues is now calling for KCC to come and clean up the mess. “I’m getting sick and tired of the council ignoring me and not dealing with the issue. I’ve been trying to contact them for more than five years now,” he said.

“The ivy is now growing up the side of the fence and making its way into my garden. It's at a stage where I can no longer maintain it. “I've suffered from illnesses like long Covid and I've had a mini-stroke.

My wife can't help me as she's got a degenerative back condition. “I see this outside my house every single day and it’s making me depressed looking at it.” The dad-of-two wants the authority to pull out all of the plants, some of which are more than 6ft in height, and turf the plot.

Once this is done, he says he would then be “happy to maintain it”. Mr Baynes says he can “count on one hand” the number of times the council has been to the property to clear up the weeds and claims they have “never done a proper job”. “I spent £38,000 on a new conservatory and the weeds are even starting to grow over the fence and onto it,” he added.

“Whenever the council comes down to do some work on it they only tidy it up a bit. Six months later it will be back to exactly how it was. “The mess is definitely decreasing the value of my home.

It’s not my land so I shouldn't have to put up with this. “I'm completely fed up.” Mr Baynes, who claims he has seen multiple rats in the undergrowth, has offered to buy the land off KCC in an attempt to get the mess sorted.

He says the plot is regularly blighted by rubbish, with multiple crisp packets, cans and boxes seen amongst the weeds. In a statement, a KCC spokesman said: "Works to the shrub beds in Newlands will be completed in the next three weeks. “Our shrub beds are maintained annually over the winter months.

“The team will be visiting the area and will be removing weeds, pruning shrubs and picking litter to ensure the beds are fully maintained.".