BAYSWATER councillor Alan Radford says ratepayers should chip in when it comes to beautifying local streets.

Cr Radford told last week’s council meeting he remembered when it was common for residents to help with projects like community gardens.

“People took ownership and if someone came along to ruin it, they’d be the first ones to point out how they slaved away to make it,” Cr Radford told councillors.

“Now they’d just call the rangers because they’d think it’s the council’s problem.”

His comments follow a council debate over whether to install planter boxes in Bayswater’s town centre. He hopes locals will chip in for the project if they want it, and hopes they will be proud enough to step in if, for example, a passer-by butts out a cigarette in a planter box.

The council voted to draw up a report investigating the planter boxes as well as “parklets”—makeshift dining areas on parking spaces—in all the city’s main shopping strips.