There comes a time in every blogger's life when a little hyperbole is called for

4:59pm Wednesday 17th September 2008

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It seems the borough's residents are destined to be buried under a mountain of uncollected rubbish, kicking and screaming beneath the cumulative filth - or something equally hyperbolic.

We're still getting calls about fetid waste left lying all over the borough, roads going unswept and now, whole streets being left out of refuse collection. It's a problem that just doesn't seem to go away and more and more people are bewailing the pitiful state of the borough's streets. What to do then? Scrap Kier and start again? Raise street level a couple of inches and just bury it all under a layer of tarmac? Is the situation now completely untenable?

At first, I cared. I cared very much. I genuinely wanted to speak out and be the voice of the great unwashed (streets, that is). But now, after the umpteenth irate phone call, I'm finding it very hard to muster up the same sense of outrage. It seems to be a neverending cycle of complaint, report, street cleaned, street left a few weeks, street filthy again, complaint, report, street cleaned etc., etc., and it's frustrating to think we're all just butting our heads against a brick wall.

Naturally, we welcome readers' comments and even actively invite them to call us with stories. But the utter futility of our efforts in this particular saga is, at the risk of more hyperbole, thoroughly soul destroying. Some might say it's better to do something than nothing but at this stage, I'm wondering if doing nothing might in fact be the equivalent of doing something, since it apparently has the same result.

For one reason or another, however, it seems to be the case that this is something people think they stand a chance of remedying and they will do their damnedest to do it - better to fight the battle you might win, than the war you're already losing. Which makes it all the more soul destroying that it's been impossible so far.

But it is onwards and upwards, mark you, soul destroying or not - or at least onwards anyway. We will carry on plugging away, as hope does indeed spring eternal apparently, in spite of everything - otherwise, people would just give up. The philosophy seems to be that the problem can't be ignored forever and that therefore we'll one day make some progress. The squeaky wheel eventually gets the grease and all that. (Eventually is the operative word there, however.) So if, five or fifteen or fifty years down the line, the streets of Waltham Forest are just a little bit cleaner and more habitable, you'll have the Guardian to thank.

Fortunately, however, on a completely unrelated topic, I have now seen The Mountain Goats live at ULU and my life is therefore complete. Google them. Your life will be better because of it and I do like to try and make sure this blog improves lives.