A question for every Glaswegian: would you pass the leaf test?

You may be sensing some sarcasm at this end about the tone of the council’s advice and you’d be right: it’s a little bit Blue Peter, a little bit Valerie Singleton. But I’m also feeling some frustration that the council needs to say any of this in the first place. I’m not seeking praise (chance would be a fine thing) but I clear the leaves from the road outside my house every year. I do the same with the snow in winter. I also take a carrier bag with me when I’m walking the dog and pick up bits of litter and pick rubbish from the hedge and put it in the recycling. This is what lots of people do, all the time, big deal.

But the reaction of some Glaswegians to the council’s appeal on the leaves shows that not everyone thinks this way. Some folk on the council’s Facebook page said getting residents to help was a good idea but others weren’t so happy. “Not our job,” said one woman. “That’s why we pay council tax – get on with it.” Another woman said she used to clear the leaves in her area and put them in her brown bin but that she wouldn’t be doing it anymore because the council has introduced a charge for the bins. “So you will have to pay extra staff to clean them up,” she said.

The bit about charging for the bins is understandable to an extent. If you demand extra money to pick up some rubbish, like bulky items and garden waste, people will try to find ways of avoiding the payment, which means more fridges and mattresses on the street. It’s also going to affect areas of deprivation the most: not only is littering and fly-tipping worse in those areas, the residents are less able to afford the extra charges, so the problem gets worse where it most needs to be tackled. And now, if people are reluctant to pay the brown-bin charge, we may need to add leaves to the problem.

Part of me thinks: use your common sense. If you’re moving leaves from drains, you don’t have to put them in a bin – put them on verges, flower beds or muddy areas to mulch down. Another part of me wants to ask people why they wouldn’t do some things for themselves rather than expect the council to do it, which is where the Leaf Test kicks in. Some Glaswegians pass the test every day with flying colours by cracking on and getting things done; others fail it by watching things go to hell and waiting, sometimes in vain, for the council to fix it.

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Some of this mirrors the divides that have always existed in society. Between rich and poor for example. As I say, areas of deprivation are more likely to suffer from littering and so on and the less-well-off are understandably more likely to rely on, and expect, the council to help them. The fact that life has got tougher for lots of people may also explain why attitudes towards councils have hardened. We pay our council tax so councils should do the basics like collecting the rubbish (and leaves) and I do have some sympathy with this: councils should not be charging extra to collect rubbish.

But the other divide troubles me just as much: the divide between right and left. People on the right are much more likely to think that good and strong societies are a mix of governmental and personal responsibility and that one of our personal responsibilities is to do what we can to make things work, through a charity, or a local group, or by doing what you need to do personally, like picking up litter or leaves.

And lots of folk do think like this, and get on with it. Like the guy I was speaking to the other day who owns a key-cutting business in Cathcart and cleans and tidies the street outside his shop every day. Or the landlady of my local who does the same in the lane next to her pub. They don’t expect less of councils, and they’d like them to do more, but they also don’t think it excludes community involvement, volunteering, and doing some of the work ourselves. It touches on what David Cameron used to say about the “big society”, had he not made such a cack-handed mess of explaining the idea.

(Image: Leaves can cause flooding)

My concern – partly because of the pressure on the cost-of-living I mentioned – is that the expectation that we should and can do some of the work of society ourselves is weakening in favour of the idea that the authorities should do it all. Leaves on your street? The council should clear them. Litter lying around? The council should pay people to pick it up. The people who think like this will often say “why else do we pay taxes?” and that’s fair enough as far as it goes. But what they don’t address is the fact that the more we expect of government, national and local, the more they will charge us for it in tax.

What it all means, in the end, is this: the only fair way to pass the Leaf Test is by doing what you can yourself. Not everyone is able to get out and pick up leaves or litter or whatever. And councils cannot completely pass on their responsibility to keep the streets clean and tidy to residents (or charge us extra for doing it).

But as long as there are people who throw litter down and there are people who pick it up, I agree with another of the Glaswegians who reacted to the council’s leaf appeal. This is what she told people: “We have limited resources so do your bit” and that’s the point surely. Yes, the plastic bags and the empty bottles are collecting round our feet. And yes, the leaves are piling up in the gutters and the gullies. But, despite what it looks like, the voice of common sense is still out there. Isn’t it? So we’ll be all right in the end. Won’t we?