A reader wrote to us via Facebook:
There used to be a bench beside the bicycle path between Warta and Kruszyn...
We recall the appeal by Jarosław Babiasz of the Bolesławiec Municipality Office, which we published in our pages in mid-January:
Signs marking the new “Łużyce-Bory” trail regularly disappear; bicycle shelters are used by “connoisseurs of strong drinks” as informal drinking spots, while empty bottles—not necessarily those that once contained isotonic drinks—litter the verges, although throwing even those onto the roadside is nothing to be proud of.
This picture does not reflect well on us—users, residents and investors. I deliberately write about all of us, because although this investment was carried out by the Municipality and co-financed by the European Union, it was created with our money—the residents’ money, from our taxes (and it was not a small amount: over PLN 3 million in our Municipality alone)—and is used mainly by us, the residents.
And he adds:
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said: “There is no such thing as public money. If the government says it is giving something to someone, that means it will take it from you, because the government has no money of its own.” In our local circumstances, this bitter truth means simply—or perhaps only—that we will all pay for every act of vandalism through our taxes, because whatever is damaged will have to be repaired, even though something new could have been created instead. And there is no funding available for repairs to investments like these.
On another occasion, Mrs Thatcher said: “We do not want a society in which the state is responsible for everything and no one is responsible for the state.” Let us replace the word state with municipality. The Municipality is us, the residents—not only the authorities, councillors or officials. Simply us. If we ignore vandalism, wait for someone else to act on our behalf, report something, draw someone’s attention to it or notice something, while we indifferently turn our heads and walk on, it may turn out that both we and our loss will go unnoticed. Therefore, let us not be afraid to react and condemn such behaviour as vandalism or littering. Under no circumstances will this mean doing someone else’s job, because caring for the common good is in everyone’s interest.
An official appeals:
If you know or have information about who is damaging our shared, though public, property, notify the public-order services—the police. Under no circumstances will this be informing on someone; it is simply a matter of caring for our own surroundings and, above all, our own money.
For our part, we add that acts of vandalism carry a sentence of between three months and as many as five years in prison.