Ooh my word, I haven't awarded my world renowned and internationally respected "Prats of The Week" Award for quite some time.Methinks it is time to do so!
This week it goes to the wardens (and Norwich council who employed them) of Lakenfields sheltered housing complex in Norwich.
Lakenfields is a sheltered housing complex for elderly people. It has a good community spirit, whereby each week George Pretty (72) would do a fish and chip shop run and bring back fish and chips for his 18 fellow residents who were not able to get out.
Can you guess what happened next children?
Yes, that's right, the health and safety gestapo decreed that there may be a health and safety risk wrt the ambient temperature of the fish and chips.
The result being that the wardens banned Mr Pretty from doing the run, as the fish and chips (at possibly low ambient temperature) presented a clear and present danger to the residents.
OK, here's why this is total bollocks:
1 Fish and chips can be eaten stone cold, with no ill effects.
2 The residents, if they thought they were too cold would doubtless not bother ordering/eating them again.
3 The residents are doubtless intelligent enough to determine what they wish to eat, and how they wish it to be provided.
4 The complex is not a prison camp.
5 It is not the wardens' business what private citizens choose to eat.
6 Banning the one highlight, for the entire community, of the week was by anyone's standards mean spirited and cruel. A thoroughly loathsome thing to do.
7 How many people in the UK die from cold fish and chips...errrmmm...no one!
8 The journey takes all of 5 minutes!
Needless to say once a bit of a media storm erupted over this, the dorks at the council backed down and claimed that the wardens were being "over zealous"...done with the "best intentions" (Pah! the road to hell is paved etc). I guarantee that had not a storm erupted the council would not have lifted a finger.
Meals on wheels type boxes are now being provided; all very fancy, but I guarantee that the fish and chips arrive no warmer than had they been wrapped in paper only!
The wardens and Norwich City Council, well deserving Prats of The Week!
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The same council who have already spent loads of (taxpayers) money preparing for "Unitary Status" before there is any certainty they will get it. And these idiots think they are better able to run the surrounding areas than the current administrations?
ReplyDeleteThe same council who have left the remembrance gardens opposite City Hall in dis-repair for years (we can't expect a left wing mob to celebrate our past now, can we?)
The same council who allowed one of their housing officers to live at subsidised rent in houses that were supposedly unfit for residents.
Locals often refer to the City Hall as the Kremlin.....
So an old gent leaves his home, strolls a few yards to the chippie, and fetches a few suppers for his pals.
ReplyDeleteWhat power, exactly, does a council apparatchik have to stop this happening?
Why did the old gent not tell them to take a running jump?
Where is the Dunkirk spirit these days?
If a few officious tossers were told to go forth and multiply (with menaces and threats, if required), the others would soon learn, and perhaps we'd be left in peace. Worth a try, surely.
The problem with this, well other than the fact the wardens are clearly prats, is that the complex is a sheltered housing complex; it is neither a care home nor a prison camp. The residents are living in their own homes independently of the local council. In most of these "homes" there is an emergency pull cord for the independent residents to use if they say have a fall etc.
ReplyDeleteThis case is a perfect illustration of why powers should not be given to those that are too daft to use them sensibly....That in effect means that no one employed by local Nanny should have any powers what so ever because, local government ONLY attracts petty minded, power hungry dorks(I like that word Ken!!)
Well deserving Prats of the Week.
What a bunch of utter and complete twats! I've had to eat fish and chips before now, at a considerably lower temperature than I would prefer, but didn't contract the bubonic plague, the black death or even salmonella poisoning.
ReplyDeleteWas the chief warden's name Hodges by any chance? It is high time the council and their petty jobsworths treated their residents with a little bit of respect: as you rightly pointed out, Ken, they are not running a prison camp, although perhaps they think they are?
If the council needed to make cuts in their budget, however, I'll wager 'health and safety' concerns would not stop them shutting elderly people's homes, or slashing essential services like Meals on Wheels!
You also said, Ken, that "banning the one highlight, for the entire community, of the week was by anyone's standards mean spirited and cruel. A thoroughly loathsome thing to do." I couldn't agree more, but since when has that bothered these w*****s?
I also agree with you, Anonymous: the jobsworth who informed Mr Pretty of the ban should have been told to '**** off!' However, my guess is that Mr Pretty is too much of a gentleman to have done so.
I commented on this story in the national media, pointing out that I live about five or so minutes from my local chip shop and have to cross a main road and several side roads. I have yet to keel over and die from the effects of a fish supper that has cooled a little. Furthermore by taking Nannys diktats to their logical conclusion, each time I venture out on the quest for a nice piece of battered Haddock and chips fried in lard I should be wearing a hi-vis jacket, carrying an insulated box and have filled out a 25 page risk assessment before leaving.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what these people would have made of my grandmother who used to cook meals for elderly neighbours and relatives in nearby streets ? I guess they would have had her locked up as danger to society.
*sigh* I bought an insulated hot/cool bag at Morrisons the other day for under 2 quid: maybe the Council could do the same? Whatever happened to initiative?
ReplyDeleteThere is certainly nothing to stop anybody bringing in fish'n'chips from across the road. The ban came about because (and I quote from the online report) "the weekly treat was not a casual arrangement but part of the official lunch club, which wardens were partly responsible for overseeing."
ReplyDeleteIn other words, "if somebody gets ill, they might sue us because our employees could be held responsible." I suspect, therefore, that it's the growing litigation culture that is the culprit, rather than 'elf'n'safety'.
Perhaps Jack Nicholson, at his advanced age, could do a reprise of his role as McMurphy in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," but this time as a rebellious fish and chips runner in sheltered housing complex in Norwich.
ReplyDeleteNanny, of course, would play Nurse Rachet.
Surely the home has a microwave or two. Or are the residents not permitted to use such a complicated piece of industrial equipment without a risk assessment?
ReplyDeleteThe absurd thing about this is, and I quote from the local papers article:
ReplyDelete"But all the orders are wrapped individually in polystyrene boxes and would be eaten only five minutes after I picked them up, everyone used to say how lovely and hot they were."
Full story here: http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/News/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=enonline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED27%20May%202009%2007%3A30%3A33%3A487
I've heard this thing about food getting cold being a H&S issue a few times recently, with cafes and the like being told they can't have particular food unless they can keep it hot, even though it's food that's perfectly fine to be eaten cold!
ReplyDeleteAnd I bet this is all down to some EU reg that Bend Over And Take It Up The Arse Britain dutifully signs up to.
I drive to a chippie about 10 minutes away as it's run by a friend. When I get back to my starving family the food is , quite amazingly, still very hot.
ReplyDeleteMust be something to do with wrapping it up.
The lunacy continues..
When it comes down to stupid decisions like these, the enforcing 'Wardens' take their orders from Management who make these decrees. When there is a public outcry, Management then blame the poor sucker of a Warden for doing what they were told to do in the first place (Usually under threat of summary dismissal) by their senior Manager.
ReplyDeleteJust shows the level of management expertise your Council tax pays for.
I actually live just outside of Norwich and heard about this one this morning. We talked about it in the office and, if the council hadn't backed down, we were going to deliver them instead (sneak them in of course - nothing they could do about it if they just 'arrived'...)
ReplyDelete@xemefex
ReplyDeleteHang on, we're talking about fish and chips here, not sp*m.