It should be possible to wash it off or peel fruit. But I was really thinking of residential streets where there is a low level of traffic. Particularly areas where there are grass verges and a bit more space for spread.
the thing is the council dont like obstructions on the grass verges as it would slow down the cutting time therefore cost more to cut the verges, ideally they much prefer concrete
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The other thing you have to be careful with trees is if their roots grow up and make the pavements uneven or dangerous.
They need to be trees whose roots grow downwards naturally, rather than sideways and spreading
That’s why they plant a lot of Ginko biloba in urban areas. I think fruit trees do have quite spready roots?
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Well it started in the Blair years Annie, but all governments really. None of them have reversed the trend, so we have ended up with a country full of over educated young people, while we allow hundreds of thousands of foreign workers to come in and do the jobs that we are not skilled at anymore. Bearing in mind that the underlying problem with the UK is over population…
I had to laugh when I read this. Wollongong council (or any council) doesn’t mow grass verges householders do, people like me with a corner block have more grass outside their garden than inside. They actually encourage house holders to plant in front of their house.
There are some rules:
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They could plant fruit trees in public parks. There are so many parks that just have nothing but miles of grassland.
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Would you prefer that we have an uneducated population and have to import the educated from other countries? Although it does seem we need to do quite a bit of that too.
Yes, that would probably be better, they could create small orchards. Good for the insects and wildlife too 
Hi
Most serious pollutants are taken up through the roots, so washing or peeling would be no use at all.
funnily enough my local council has experimented with meadow flowers on deep verges, that way they dont mow them, so check out the local garden centre if they have Aussie meadow flower seeds and just get them scattered and you wont need to mow… allegedly…lol
The Parish Council in my village have done exactly that. We now have a small orchard planted at one corner of the playing field - part of the Queen’s Canopy. Residents were asked if they would like to sponsor each tree and those who chose to do so planted ‘their’ tree and have a small plaque next to it with their name on it. This was done last year and this year the trees are in blossom, a lovely sight to see. There’s a mixture of different apple and pear varieties, about 25 trees in all.
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How lovely, I think that’s a really good idea 
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You’re doing it again Annie…Taking what I say to the extreme.
Of course I don’t want to see an uneducated population, but not everyone who goes to university is academically inclined and these are the people who are good with their hands like plumbers, engineers, bricklayers, joiners and other skilled trades. For the trades you need to be apprenticed straight from school and trained on the job by the experienced.
The young people of today feel that they have failed if they don’t make it to university.
Despite just about everyone now attending university we still have to import some skilled personnel, the NHS are full of foreign doctors and nurses, why is that? Because the system does not work.
Its generally full of pesticides anyway .
It’s doesn’t work because we don’t have enough medical schools or means of training doctors not because there are no young people who would like to be doctors .
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No you don’t. They should be letting anyone go on an apprenticeship. I think it’s the apprenticeship programmes that are poorly designed and excessively administratively burdensome. The requirements put potential apprentices off and there is a high drop out rate. I don’t know who designs these things but assume it’s yet more management consultants.
The problem with much in the UK is that it is being run by management consultants, supposed experts. They may be very bright but they do not hold any stake in the decisions they make. They take their money and move on to the next assignment. I keep expecting this to change but each government just commissions more because they do not want to be accountable.
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In theory we should have sufficient medical schools. We have so many teaching hospitals.
It’s just that a high % of the doctors trained do not stay here.
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It’s the same in Spain their doctors tend to move elsewhere too .
U.K. doctors like to go to Australia or New Zealand .
Who can blame them. It seems to be a better life out there in many ways. But really they should make it mandatory that if you train here you stay here for a minimum period of x years.
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The Docs in Spain don’t stay mainly where they train. 
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