Nanny hates litter, I hate litter,
You hate litter,
We all hate litter!
One thing, at least, that we can all agree on.
Therefore full marks to Andrew Tierney, of Hinckley, who threw some litter into a litter bin on a lamp post last month.
Regrettably for Andrew he reckoned without the snooping and prying eyes of Nanny and her troglodytes.
A fortnight later he received a letter from the trolls who work in Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, they were fining him £50 for his trouble.
Why?
Well you see, Andrew had thrown away two pieces of junk mail that had been thrust into his hand by the postman, as he left for work.
In Nanny's eyes junk mail counts as "domestic refuse", and as such should not be put into a public litter bin.
Two questions immediately spring to mind here:
1 What sad, pathetic, snooping, twat had nothing better to do with his/her life than to spy on Andrew and report him?
2 Was it worse than spying, did some troll from the council go through the contents of the bin and read Andrew's name and address on the letters?
3 Should Andrew have simply thrown the letters onto the street?
Needless to say, Andrew is not taking this pathetic fine lying down; he is going to court over the matter.
Quote:
"I've been fined for doing the right thing
I could have easily chucked those letters on the ground, but I put them in the bin.
What has happened is a joke.
The council is barmy.
I never thought you could get a fine for putting rubbish in a bin
that's what they are there for."
He added:
"The council has told me to pay up or appeal
and there's absolutely no way I'm paying up.
No one I know was even aware a fine like this exists.
You get fined for chucking rubbish on the floor.
You get fined for chucking rubbish in the bin.
So what exactly are you supposed to do?"
The jobsworths at the council refused to back down, and rather incongruously noted that the bin's purpose was to "to keep streets tidy".
A Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council troll noted that junk mail "constituted household waste" which "has a separate collection."
The troll went on to say:
"A fixed penalty notice is served to people who we believe have committed an offence.
Anyone who feels they have been issued with a penalty unfairly can appeal,
and we will consider each case based on the evidence before us.
Our litter bins are there to keep streets tidy, as they enable the public to deposit small amounts of litter.
They are not provided for household waste."
What a plonker!
Now the council are considering putting signs up on the bins, no doubt at great expense!
Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council chief executive Steve Atkinson, has he not got better things to do with his time?, got involved in the spat and said:
"If the evidence does not stack up and we are potentially guilty of over-reaction then we need to deal with it in the right way.
If we have over-reacted we will hold our hands up and acknowledge it."
It is hardly surprising that council tax bills keep going up. We will soon suffocate under a morass of red tape and snooping officialdom.
Simple solution, abolish all local councils; they seemingly serve no purpose other than to suffocate and tax their local residents.
On that particular subject you may find www.cracc.co.uk to be of interest:)
Insanity. But not as surprising as it should be, unfortunately. Last year a friend of mine (local business owner) got together a group of willing local youngsters and organised a "litter pick up" of the town centre - the local district council were not happy. Oh no. You see, they hadn't been trained in picking up litter. The whole scheme came close to being cancelled until someone with a little of that rarity we used to call "common sense" thought about it - they decided that providing the kids with gloves and grabber sticks would allow it to go ahead. Then told my friend that in future she would need to have attended a course on picking up rubbish. Her other scheme, to do a general clean up and weeding of the same area (removing moss and grass etc from between paving slabs) was firmly rejected because she had not had the required training, and the council actually pay someone to do this - no mention of why it hadn't been done in over 2 years though.
ReplyDeleteSo, remember, you can only pick up litter if you have been properly trained in how to do it. The same goes for weeding.
This reminds me of an incident in my own life. Having suffered the weekly bin collection, during the course of which the highly trained 'refuse management operatives' managed to strew the street with all sorts of detritus I decided to go out and try to pick it up (the idea of taking it and dumping it on the steps of the council office never crossed my mind...honestly).
ReplyDeleteAs I was doing so some jobsworth wanders up. The resulting conversation went something like:
Him: "What do you think you are doing ?"
Me: "Picking up the litter."
Him: "You can't do that, you're not a council street sweeper."
Me: "Haven't seen one of those around here for over ten years. If I don't do it we will be knee deep in rubbish thanks to the bin men."
Him: "You're going to have to stop, you're not properly trained. If you carry on I'll have to report you."
Me: "You're taking the p**s aren't you ?"
Him: "Only properly trained council refuse management operatives are allowed to sweep the streets. You could hurt yourself or someone with that broom you've got and what's more you are doing the job of someone employed by the council."
Me: "...that we haven't seen in ten years!"
Him: "That's not the point."
Me: "Look, I could put all the rubbish I have picked up back if that would make you happy ? "
Him: "Are you being facetious ?"
At this point I just gave up. Nowadays myself and the neighbours run a clandestine litter picking up scheme after the hours of darkness in the hope that the council jobsworths are safely tucked up in bed and think it is the litter pixies that make the place look tidy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/4792490.stm
ReplyDeleteYour well out of date Ken! Theyve backed down
"You could hurt yourself or someone with that broom you've got... "
ReplyDeleteTo which the correct response is:
"Yes I could. Perhaps you should go away before that happens?"
These councils are behaving as if they are courts of law,the phrase "you can appeal"says it all ,i can not for the life of me see why so many people take any notice of these idiots,they seem to think that they only have to make an ex-cathedra statement and we are bound to obey , heres some news for them STUFF IT!
ReplyDeleteCouncil chief executive Steve Atkinson said: "Perhaps Hinckley's residents could be better informed on where to dump their waste.
ReplyDelete"We also need to learn from it and that maybe the public are not as aware of the rules on where rubbish should be put as they should be.
"We need to give them better information and we are arranging that now."
Anybody else think the people of Hinkley are about to get a load of unwanted leaflets, and the bins might just get full to overflowing.
I am proud to say that some time ago, when Watford Council (whom God rot, jointly and severally, for the collection of brain-dead nonentities they are) failed to empty my bin for 3 weeks running, I put it in the back of my VW Golf, drove to the Town Hall, and in full view of a gaping porter emptied it all out in the foyer. So stunned was he that he failed to move or even speak; I and my bin took our leisurely departure. Man, that felt great!
ReplyDeleteDoes the litter in the street bins not end up in the same place as my household waste then?
ReplyDeleteHmmmmmmmmmmm?
It's not like anyone has any control over getting junk mail. Perfect strangers send it to you and you are forced to do something with it. Being able to stop that would make me happy.
ReplyDeleteMaybe there ought to be "junk mail" bins attached to each and every mailbox. Then the citizen, or a Properly Trained letter carrier, could take care of the problem on the spot. You'd never even bring that crap into your house.