Seachain an duine a bhíonn ina thost

For today's media lesson, let's take a little look at the front page article in last week's Bangor and Anglesey Mail. It's about litter in Bangor, so I bet you all know what's coming ... yes! It's those damn STUDENTS again.

The changing of the seasons means that there are plenty of leaves falling, and this has added to the mess in the city.

Just wanted to highlight again that yes, leaves falling is front page news in Bangor.

"You know that leaves are going to fall at this time of year, and most of them are swept up, but in certain areas where students park their cars and just leave them, the work simply can’t be carried out," added Cllr Roscoe.

Those students, it's absolutely shocking, how DARE they park their cars? They should be driving them around AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE so the Council can sweep around them. I always knew it was those pesky students causing leaves on the ground, not trees or seasons or anything. I suggest we sue Sam as chief student representative.

But another thing Cllr Roscoe mentions causes me much greater concern:

Cllr Jean Roscoe, county councillor for the Hirael ward,

[which is where I live, I hope she is bearing in mind that there are Council elections coming up ...]

believes that people still aren’t taking responsibility for their own actions and that the problem will continue until they do so.

"I know people who have dumped their rubbish in the road, and two months later, it’s still there," she said.

So she's saying that she knows people who dump rubbish in the street, yet she is complaining that the Council (which she is a member of, lest she forget) is not doing its job properly?

To go back to Cllr Roscoe and the important issue of leaves on the street:

"It’s a tough job anyway, and time and time again, we’ve appealed to the university to help us with this and it just hasn’t happened."

Gosh, poor beleagured Gwynedd Council. But this is the point where the University press office kick in and drag the whole conversation back to reality:

A spokesperson for Bangor University said: "The university’s staff and students contribute substantially to the local economy, [the] university budget alone [is] over £100m, much of which is spent in the local economy.

"We would welcome the opportunity to discuss realistic workable solutions in relation to traffic with the local authority."

It really is quite frustrating having all the world's ills blamed on students with no thought for the contribution we make to the local economy, so thank you press office for sticking up for us. GO TEAM ALAN!