AS I sit here writing this I am some 3,000 miles away on vacation in Lanzarote wandering just how much things here are not so different to back home.

The resort that we are staying at has clearly had better days.

Next to the coast some of the development of white painted houses show signs of neglect whilst some appear well maintained.

One of the local restaurants open when we were last here two year ago has since closed and the for sale boards are up.

There are building plots for sale and other properties still half built which have not changed for decades.

It is as if parts are a ghost town, unchanged yet in desperate need of an injection of funding.

I read the local blog which has locals complaining about the way that some owners decide to allow the area to fall into disrepair and yet do nothing about it.

The properties prices no doubt over inflated yet nothing seems to change.

It all makes me wonder that things back home in some respect are not much different.

We too have parts of Stroud which are in desperate need of funding, whether that is from private home owners, businesses or the local authority.

Some choose to leave things in an undesirable state as it is not in their backyard and some may be due to a genuine lack of funding, either way unsightly resorts detract from investment and continue in a downward spiral whilst the prosperous parts become more desirable as buyers wish to be part of the action.

Yet this need not be the case.

I have often said to vendors that if the neighbour's property looks a mess for whatever reason, pop around and offer to clear the mess as the action needs to come from them not the Neighbour.

This often come down with mixed reaction, though if we all did our part to assist our neighbours and think of the effects of our actions then society would be a much better place.