DON YOUR WAY COLUMN: Plagued by flies? Sorting the problem starts at home

Such is life for me this week. I’ve barely set foot in Doncaster over the last fortnight or so, so I’m catching up on what’s been happening.

And there seems to be one word that’s doing the rounds - and that’s flies.

You can’t fail to have noticed the protests, complaints and issues about the infestation of bugs that have invaded Rossington over the summer months.

Thousands of the critters have been making life a misery for the residents - and the whole thing reached a head when one of those complaining was hit with a paintball during a protest.

I’m not going to get into the whys and wherefores of the arguments or who’s right and who’s wrong or who’s to blame.

Most of you will already know the situation and the parties involved. I’m not here to dig into all that.

That particular side of the story has been covered in great detail by this newspaper and other platforms.

What I do know though, that on an unconnected matter, the switch to fortnightly bin collections certainly hasn’t helped when it comes to the town being swamped by flies.

We all know that warm and damp weather and rotting rubbish are the perfect conditions and breeding grounds and with 14 days between the town’s bins being gathered in, its hardly surprising that swarms have swept across not just Rossington, but other parts of Doncaster too.

Unfortunately, finding a solution to the problem is never going to be a simple one.

Weekly bin collections aren’t going to come back, whatever people might say or think.

Which means that some of the onus has to be on residents themselves to tackle the problem.

We’re all used to dealing with ants, either with a blast of ant powder or the more brutal kettle full of boiling water and tackling flies can be dealt with too, albeit in different ways with different products.

For too long we’ve lived in a culture where we’ve expected others to sort things out for us.

Sometimes, when there’s an issue that needs solving, you have to take up the mantle and sort it yourself.

A case of rolling up your sleeves and getting on with it because no-one else will.

I’m not suggesting that the good people of Rossington have the resources to tackle what is obviously a major problem, but there may be things that could be done to make things better for themselves on a personal level, at least in the short term while the bigger problem is tackled higher up the scale.

Of course, as the colder weather starts to come in (and in Britain, that’s not too far away) the problem will no doubt start to recede and the plagues of flies will soon become an afterthought to the people of Rossington.

But let’s hope lessons can be learned and changes made.