The garden bed of a local supermarket has been accused of preventing Watsonia from winning this year’s Tidy Town title, sparking heated public commentary on social media over the weekend. Despite the term “garden bed” seeming like a bit of a stretch in this case, those patches of dirt near the most controversial car park entrance in Watsonia sure did divide opinions.

And while most of the debate seemed to focus on whose responsibility it was to pick up rubbish on the street – a real IGA vs council kind of David and Goliath battle – one local resident contacted The Watsonia Bugle to claim that part of our main street was costing us the coveted title of Victoria’s tidiest town. Long-time resident Bethel McKenzie said, “I’ve been on the steering committee of our annual Tidy Town application for over 25 years now, and that pesky little garden bed has been a regular challenge for us. It seems to be at the end of a nasty little wind tunnel that funnels all the debris from Watsonia Road. I don’t care whose responsibility it is, I just want it cleaned up. Otherwise we’ll never be crowned the Tidiest Town of Victoria. What an achievement that would be!”

However, not all locals agree with McKenzie, with one anonymous resident saying, “Has she not been beyond Watsy Road? That so-called garden bed is the least of our worries! What about that rotten patch of grass between the library and the train station? Talk about a wind tunnel! If rubbish gets dropped within a two-kilometre radius of that spot, it’ll find its way to the fence before too long. It’s a shocker!”

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