Dear editor,
I wish to comment on the lack of enforcement of bylaws in Rocky View County, specifically the hamlet of Langdon.
My wife and I have lived in the Boulder Creek subdivision of Langdon for 12 years now and have seen the area grow quite dramatically during that period. Unfortunately during that same period there have been various bylaws implemented which are not enforced; I refer specifically to the bylaws related to waste management, with respect to recycling and refuse bins, adherence to the the stop signs at every intersection throughout the subdivision, and more recently, the new sidewalk clearing bylaw.
Very few vehicles, including police vehicles, stop at Langdon's stop signs. They are treated as yield signs (which I have argued, if common sense were to prevail, they would have been in the first place).
I would argue that on average, 30 per cent of people in Langdon overfill their recycling/garbage bins on any given day, which results in garbage being blown all over the neighbourhood on windy days. What's annoying is that those who do obey the bylaw are subsidizing those who don't. This is an ongoing and never ending problem. Why can't the garbage collection workers be instructed to not pick up such bins?
The latest foolishness is the new sidewalk clearance bylaw. To add insult to injury, the councillor for the area has his business frontage cleared at a cost of $5,000 while the rest of us fend for ourselves. This in itself is not so much of a problem but approximately 50 per cent of residents do not clear their sidewalk as required by the bylaw. As a matter of fact, the uncleared sidewalks have become a very real safety hazard to those residents who actually use the sidewalks to walk on.
There has been absolutely no effort made on the part of the County to enforce this bylaw, leading many of us to ask ourselves if the bylaw was implemented purely so that Rocky View County would not have to outlay monies – except of course for our councillor's property.
It would be a great improvement to our hamlet if the County could take a more professional attitude to their duties rather than the disdain they appear to show to us, the taxpayers and residents.
Phillip Grimison
Langdon
