The house judders with the vibration before 7am on the mornings of our street-cleaning machine's visit. You can hear it coming along way away, but what does it do? It crawls and judders up the middle of the road leaving its snail trail presumably to lay the dust, which the wind has already done. Then, after reaching the Town Hall it turns round and comes stampeding back again at top speed. It's not allowed into Church Square because the brushes dislodge the cobble-stones. Maybe it collects up some of the paper wedding confetti from the gutter but leaves it of course on the pavements, which rarely receive official attention.
Never mind, it has performed its statutory obligation as the Council informs us it must, though nowadays thankfully it's only once or twice a week instead of daily. If you meet a man with a broom on the pavement, it's probably me, though Nicky Ledger the Town Steward does an excellent job wherever he is called to.
photo: Kenneth Bird
