A gloomy, grey Monday morning; what more appropriate time to award my prestigious "Prats of The Week" Award?This week's award to goes to my "respected" and "admired" local council of Croydon.
Croydon Council are fond of proclaiming how environmentally aware they are. To be fair to them, all government orifices and commercial enterprises seem to have jumped on the environmental bandwagon.
Anyhoo, down in Croydon the council have issued an edict banning residents from walking to one of the borough's main environmental waste disposal centres, in Factory Lane. Instead of walking, the residents of Croydon are expected to turn up in their cars and wait for ages in long queue to get in, to dispose of their waste in an environmentally friendly manner.
Can you see the contradiction here Ladies and Gentlemen?
Even those who live just yards away from Factory Lane are not allowed to walk there, they are forced to drive in.
Paul Langton, a resident of Croydon, recently tried to dump his waste and on seeing that the car queue was a third of a mile long decided to walk. Here is what happened next, in Mr Langton's own words:
"The man who greeted us was quite adamant
that we would not be allowed to recycle anything
unless we drove in.
I tried to make him comprehend the reason we were recycling
in the first place and how driving would defeat the object
but we weren't allowed in."
Croydon Council needless to say, have an excuse.
Can you guess what that is?
Yes, that's right...health and farking safety (pass the sick bag someone).
Seemingly people on foot and in cars present a clear and present danger to each other.
Quote:
"This is particularly important at Factory Lane where,
in addition to residents' domestic vehicles,
there is regular traffic of heavy goods vehicles passing
in the area that pedestrians would have to use.
The ruling also helps prevent the dumping by traders
of industrial and commercial waste that should access
the facilities only via the weighbridge."
The astute amongst you will realise that the last part of the does not make any sense, as presumably traders would most definitely arrive by car, as they would have so much waste to dispose of.
Residents think that this is a load of old bollocks.
Why not build an access for pedestrians?
Why can't the recycling bins be positioned away from the main vehicle entrance?
Croydon Council, well deserving Prats of The Week.
Feel free to drop them a note via this link contact.thecouncil@croydon.gov.uk
Reading council have exactly the same rule at their "civic amenity site" (whatever happened to "tip"?)
ReplyDeleteIt seems to be a common diktat.
ReplyDeleteOne of the sites I use (I have to drive, they are all over 5 miles away) has it access through a small industrial estate which is off a large busy roundabout on a recently build by-pass road.
Most days now (used to be just weekends) there is a queue of vehicles stretching back to the roundabout - sometimes onto to the roundabout causing some congestion and elevated risk of collision.
The local authority's waste collection vehicles have to sit in the queue to drop off their collected waste since the weighbridge access is beyond the entrance to the domestic waste drop off area. An alternative access from a dual carriageway was closed - presumably to avoid confusion of two access routes and problems of the queues building up on that road.
I wonder what qualifications are required to become a council planning executive?
Once in the site of course Joe Public has to get out of their vehicle and endeavour, on pain of death it seems by the attitude of the attnedants, to deposit the waste into the correct skip, many of which are scattered around the site. So pedestrians mixing with the vehicles. Hmm.
It seems that a peaked cap and anything to do with rubbish/recycling always brings the fascist out in people employed by the council.
ReplyDeleteThere is also a special new council Vocabulary attached to all things waste disposal. For example, Alternate Bin Collection (ABC) instead of Fortnightly Rubbish Collection. In Bracknell in Berkshire, they even have bin police that will confiscate a second bin should any household have one, even if they purchased it from the local authority. The queues to Bracknell tip are often Half a mile long, and once one is at the front of the queue, the rubbish police make sure you sort your rubbish for them and make you dodge the frustrated motorists in order for you to put the said rubbish in the "correct" skip or pile. I must admit I thought that the little hut at the entrance to the tip was a border crossing where you crossed the border and entered into the Peoples Republic of Bracknell thus loosing all your rights as a British Citizen. The Border Guards all wear standard Health and Safety wear with Borough of Bracknell Forest on it, then the usual local authority rubbish about working together for you. HaHaHa....That's a joke!!
>whatever happened to "tip"
ReplyDeleteIt was dumped!
(sorry - I'll be leaving now...)
So, what about those of us who don't own a vehicle?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDelete" So, what about those of us who don't own a vehicle? "
Not sure why a tax-dodger should be allowed to access important distant facilities anyway. ;-)
Why not ask the council to lay on a bus? Or maybe even a collection? (Sorry, don't mean to be radical ...)
"Grant said...
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
" So, what about those of us who don't own a vehicle? "
Not sure why a tax-dodger should be allowed to access important distant facilities anyway. ;-)"
I'm glad you put that wink in there, Grant, as I suppose my husband and I are now in the category of 'tax-dodgers', my wheelchair-bound husband needing my full-time attendance. ;-)
Seconding Anonymous, I also ask, "What about those of us who don't drive?" There must be many people who, for whatever reason, do not have a car.
Both I and my husband could have afforded to run a car when we were younger and working full-time, but neither of us did, principally because neither of us was sufficiently confident of our ability to safely control a couple of tons of potentially deadly machinery.
I'm glad we don't live in Croyden (although our local council, Caradon, has featured in one of your previous posts, Ken)!