Ooh...I feel a Prats of The Week Award coming upon me!This week it goes to the binmen of Blackpool and Darwen Council.
Binmen and councils again!
Yes folks, it seems that the binmen and council of Darwen have a wee problem with teabags. They have refused to empty Donald MacKenzie's (a disabled pensioner) bin, because it was 'contaminated' by a stray teabag.
Mr MacKenzie found his wheelie-bin unemptied with a note saying 'food waste - t-bag'.
I am very impressed that the binmen have the time and energy to look through someone's bin with such thoroughness.
Mr MacKenzie complained to Darwen Council, but was told he should not have left out food.
The council's Peter Hunt (rhymes with....) said:
"Food waste can cause contamination that results in whole truckloads of recyclables having to go to landfill, so we do have to be careful."
Why do we pay council tax?
Why do we have local councils?
The binmen and council of Darwen, well deserving Prats of The Week.
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I would have thought T bags could be recycled....We put our used tea leaves on the garden to enrich the soil.
ReplyDeleteAn Indian friend of mine tells me that, back home in India, they used the lower quality tea leaves as fertiliser for their fields. They stopped putting the leaves on the fields when the British started to use Tea bags...The lower quality leaves were used in the bags instead.
There is no need for me to comment on this story, the shear stupidity of it is clear from Ken's editorial.
Another bin crime, another local authority, another prat of the week!!
The heirs of those who made sure the trains ran on time to Belsen, sorted out the gold teeth, hair, and glasses into piles of gold, silver and 'non precious' metals after they had 'followed the rules to the letter regarding transportation and recycling of post gas chamber materials are those 'working' at our local councils.
ReplyDeleteIt makes my blood boil to think that my Grandfather, father and uncles fought and in some cases died to stop facists running this country only to have that system imposed on them by the EU and its lickspittle local governers, once known as HM Government.
The age old cop out of social and intelluctual failures still rings true "I was only follwing orders.."
Apologies for spelling errors in last post - dont post in anger I guess. Dont post in Anger, hey great title for a play methinks!
ReplyDeleteI think it is time to relate my own story involving binmen, a local council and a handful of leaves. I have trimmed it a bit but the basics are:
ReplyDeleteOne evening last October I was surprised on my return home from work to notice that my recycling bin had not been emptied when those of my neighbours had been so the following day I phoned the local council environmental services to enquire why this oversight had occurred. A very efficient gentleman took my call and promised to look into it and find out why. Three hours later he phoned back to explain that my recycling bin contained "un-recyclable foreign matter" and would not be collected unless said 'foreign matter' was removed. On my enquiring as to what this was I was told it was garden waste that should have been put in a special garden sack. At this point I had to scratch my head, think a moment and wander out to the bin to see what on earth he meant. All I could see was half a dozen leaves lying amongst the bags of neatly sorted papers, cans etc so I told him this and was informed "That is probably it then, garden waste, you should not put it in the recycling bin." I explained that I had not and it was most likely that they had arrived there because:
a) I live in an area that has a number of trees.
b) It was Autumn. Leaves fall off trees during Autumn.
c) It was windy.
But to no avail. They were garden waste and should not be there so the binmen had not collected the box. Annoyed I decided to change tack a bit (you will see where this is going in a moment) and said "Okay, the leaves were obviously not put there by me and I have noticed an awful lot of them piled up in the street. This could be a problem. What can I do about it ?". The answer was "find out who has dumped them and we could prosecute them for illegal dumping". As Tonk would say 'Kerching!', you could almost hear the cash registers going off in his head as common sense flew out of the window. No, "we will get a sweeper out to sweep them up", just the sound of pennies falling into coffers from a successful prosecution against some poor sod whose tree had the temerity to lose its leaves in Autumn.
"Right!" I said, "I'll give you an address!" as I knew exactly where the leaves had come from.
Skip forward a few days and a drone from the environmental department arrives on my doorstep (only 30 minutes late) "to investigate my fly-tipping problem!". I agreed to accompany him to show him the source of the problem so that he could gather evidence for a prosecution...and this is where it gets fun.
I showed him the perpetrator and his face was a picture as he realised that it was a tree and it stood in the garden of a council run block of sheltered accommodation apartments. Yes, the man from the council had been called out to gather evidence and investigate a tree in order to prosecute...the council.
Cost of phone calls about 60p, hassle to me...some but not a lot. Look on the face of the 'official'...priceless!
Oddly enough after that my recycling collection was taken, leaves and all and throughout the Autumn it was never missed once.
The moral of the story ? They mess with you ? You mess with them three times worse! Use their total lack of common sense against them.
What is this obsession with bins that councils seem to have these days? It's all about the bins at the moment...Weird.
ReplyDeleteThe irony of the phrase 'Nanny State' isn't lost on me-the person I knew as 'Nanny' was no-nonsense,
down-to-earth and about as far removed from the 'Nanny State' as you can get.
Off topic - David Davis has resigned and will force a by election in his constituency in which he will stand, on the platform of a protest at the steady erosion of our civil liberties.
ReplyDeleteMy God - one of them's listening at last.
I live in his constituency and will be turning out to vote (for our liberty from nanny and her goons in the councils etc) for the first time in twenty years.
(My previous failures to turn out were not apathy - oh no - if there had been a box to tick, against the words "they are all self serving lying shysters" I would have travelled twice round the world to tick that box.)
Smithy:
ReplyDeleteYou raise a good point, I have been saying for years that there should be a box for "None of the above" on ballot papers at elections.
In my view, Mr Davis would have been a far better leader of the Conservatives than the Blair clone we have now.
The saddest thing about so many of these reports is that the net effect of any claimed 'contamination' is so trivial and the excuses so poor that it is a wonder that the Nanny spokespeople are not too embarrassed to make a public statement.
ReplyDeleteBut then similar very public events - like Big Brother for example - don't seem to phase people so I guess anything for a moment of public recognition.
In the case of the tea bag the photo I saw, which may or may not have been 'staged after the event' - though it seems likely to be original with the tea bag sitting right on top of a plastic bag and so very obvious - just requires the collection vehicle to be equipped with a receptacle for 'non-qualifying' waste.
The rules are so complicated and the waste types so difficult to identify that I would have thought this would always be a constant 'risk'.
Of course the real 'risk' is probably totally unrelated to the further processing of the waste, whatever that may be, and much more likely to be related to the income enhancement potential for the 3rd party waste processors being able to evade their contracted regular fees and charge a premium for 'contaminated' loads.
So, we are all asked (or forced) to take on waste sorting duties then have more cash demanded for the privilege by the local councils and then more cash extraction to pay for the profits of the waste disposal teams working according to some regulation probably derived from fictitious and spurious 'science' of ecology driven by environmentalist politics.
The idea of becoming a Refuse Collection Operative is gaining appeal now that all one has to do is walk around sticking labels on bins. It's almost like being paid to take gentle exercise.
Of course all this distraction stops us considering issues that Nanny may want to distract us from thinking about - EU 'Treaties' and extended detention for 'terrorists' without charge.
What a sad state of affairs.
Grant
It's Blakburn not Blackpool!
ReplyDeleteTonk. said...
ReplyDelete"... I have been saying for years that there should be a box for "None of the above" on ballot papers at elections."
Me too.
I did wonder if one could somehow change one's name and then stand for election but alphabetic order would not be guaranteed to get one to the bottom of the list.
Grant
I discovered this site only a couple of months ago and have enjoyed both Ken's leading posts and those of other commentators.
ReplyDeleteI fear, however, that stories about bins (which nicely encapsulate the state we're in) will run and run. Only so many examples of the madness are needed to drive home the point.
(To refer to the site's 'strapline') I, therefore, see much highlighting of the nanny state but very little in the way of resistance to it.
Is the purpose simply to allow people to let off steam and share their stories and individual responses to nanny's authoritarian, punitive interference or is there appetite for collective strategy?
Joyce
Ken:
ReplyDeleteWould you consider standing in the forthcoming election against Mr Davis? (I do support what he has done)
Perhaps you could stand on the anti nanny ticket....Think of all those lovely expenses....no receips required of course!!
With regard to my comment of yesterday, I told my wife last night that I would be voting for David Davis and she enquired that as he was in the last election we had, why had I not voted for him then. I told her that I felt that in a general election I witheld my vote because I did not feel I should be forced to put my tick in the box for the least worst of a bad bunch - however my forthcoming vote was about an "issue".
ReplyDeleteThis morning I heard a presenter on the radio interviewing a politician and asking if "she felt it was OK to have more draconian laws than most world dictatorships have, detention without charge, 1 cctv camera per 14 population, and laws for "Hate Crime".
That made me shiver a bit.
I will vote for the "issue" as I have said - less intrusion from the "Authorities" / greater freedom. Joyce 8.37pm said she saw much highlighting of the nanny state but little actual resistance - My first step of resistance will be my vote in the Howden by-election. Then if they ever try to force ID cards on us, I suggest that will be the time to take to the streets.
Hmmmmmm, not a lot happening on the site today. Do you think Ken will be back in 42 days time ?
ReplyDeleteAnon (2:31) may be closer to the truth than he thinks.
ReplyDeleteI understand that one of the EU's 'democrats' is concerned that there are too many blogsites operating on the 'net which are operated by nasty subversive people who do not identify their true motives - or true political beliefs. The proposed solution (just as one would expect) is that such blogsites must be regulated and/or registered before thay can be allowed to operate. [Any bets as to the sort of information you would be required to supply?] One can imagine the glee with which the proposal was received.
Couple this piece of 'liberalism' with Nanny's shiny new '42 Day Holiday Plan' to see the potential.
I reckon that soon, instead of each of us being disembodied names; we will all get the opportunity to meet face-to-face in the exercise yard of one of Nanny's hostels for 'hate criminals'. I'll be the one with he beard and the sun tan; see you there.
grumpy,
ReplyDeleteI didn't spend enough time studying the details of the 42 week holiday scheme. However my subconscious seemed to register quite a good day rate and I assume all expenses are covered.
Hmm.
Probably get a council tax rebate as well.
How best should one apply?
Grant
Oh Dear
ReplyDeletesome more rubbish news...
Binmen boycott Mr Fowler's "wrong Bin"
http://news.bbc.co.uk
/1/hi/england/7453330.stm
Re: Mr. Fowler's bin.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time it was only organisations like the Mafia, Triads, Insurance Companies and Motor Manufacturers who exhibited the desire to extort overtly by grossly overcharging for 'services'.
Now it seems to be common practice.
What can one say?
Grant
Grant @ 5.47 you asked, "...How best should one apply?"
ReplyDeleteI believe that, in order to simplify the application procedure (and to avoid customers' being disappointed), Nanny has decided that posting on a site such as this will be considered as - in itself - a valid request. So you may take it that you have already applied.
You may expect a call from Nanny's blackcoated holiday reps. any day soon (keep your 3:00am's free for the preliminary magical mystery tour).
Happy Holiday!!
[Oh, and while you're there, enquire about the 42 day + optional extension: if you are one of the lucky prizewinners, not only do you get the whole holiday free, but Nanny may even give you holiday expenses of 3000 pounds per day for the extra time. So keep blogging - this is one scheme that every citizen really can take part in.]