As we all know, Nanny's councils have something of a bee in their collective bonnets over "health and safety".
Rob Grice, a barber shop owner from Wigan, found this to his cost recently when his local council decreed that his barber's shop pole (a freestanding red and white erection...can I say erection?) presented a clear and present danger to the health and safety of pedestrians.
The council happily seized it!
Isn't that theft?
The odd thing is that this pole has been there for 19 years.
Why oh why would the council seize it now?
Hmmmm...
Shall we ask the council then my loyal readers?
Yes, let's ask the council!
Here's what they say:
"We work closely with access groups and it is our duty to look after the interests of people in wheelchairs and with white sticks.
Objects like these are not as stable as fixed street signs and we are being encouraged by Government to be much more proactive over things like this.
The sign was noticed by inspectors. The shop is in a narrow street. It was an accident waiting to happen. The proprietor was issued with a warning but he failed to respond so we were obliged to take it off him.
He is entitled to have it back if he pays the council £100."
Oh hoh!
Ah hah!
Teh heh!
The very last sentence contains the real reason for them lifting the sign...
Ker Farking Ching!
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"We work closely with access groups"
ReplyDeleteGroups, plural! How many busybodies are our councils employing?!
"we are being encouraged by Government to be much more proactive over things like this."
That is part of the problem.
"It was an accident waiting to happen."
Well it waited quite happily for 19 years without happening, methinks perhaps it might only happen in their paranoid minds? With such imaginations surely they'd be better employed as authors of horror stories and children's fiction rather than as improbable risk finders.
If you set up any group then they will find something wrong just to justify their existence.....How many reviews or inquiries have actually reported back to the authority that everything is fine and there are no problems? Not any I would guess.
ReplyDeleteI suspect the pole is not even worth £100 but you can bet your life if you don't pay this £100 stealth tax then you would be charged for the disposal of the item.....Ker-Farking-Ching indeed!!!
Enjoy putting signs in the street reponsibly.
"We have pinched your sign and you can have it back if you pay us £100"
ReplyDeleteWhat will they do if he doesnt pay? Cut bits off it and send them to him in the mail?
It was an accident waiting to happen?
So what! Accidents happen everyday with regular monotiny. You cant legislate against them and you certainly cant stop them through blatant extortionism such as this.
We work closely with access groups?
All pressure groups should be completely ignored. They are nothing more than busybodies with their own chips on their shoulders and too much time on their hands, trying to inflate their own sense of self importance.
I'd like to think the council aren't above the criminal law and as their action amounts to theft if I were the barber I'd make a complaint to the police and make sure it was followed up. And isn't demanding money in exchange for the return of stolen property an offence in itself?
ReplyDelete"The sign was noticed by inspectors..."
ReplyDeleteDidn't you have a nice little graphic a while ago to illustrate this point?
(Word verification "facha", as in "facha, facha, facha, out, out, out")
My favourite group of busybodies is Sustrans, a small Bristol cycling club that has grown very fat on Nannys, I mean our, money. It has left livid scars of poorly constructed cycle paths across the countryside. It controls tens of millions of lottery, central and local government money yet is a self perpetuating group of just 11 people. This sums up my objection far more elequently than I can.
ReplyDeletehttp://homepage.ntlworld.com/ron.strutt/rrsustrans.html
A barbers pole was originally used to advertise the blood letting services that barbers performed. The red and white stripes are symbols of the before and after bandages.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that there is a hidden, well maybe not that well hidden message there.
The right and proper destination for Mr Grice's pole is too rude to be spelt out on a polite blog such as this.
ReplyDeleteAnticant said:
ReplyDelete"The right and proper destination for Mr Grice's pole is too rude to be spelt out on a polite blog such as this."
Sideways!
Well not only is it a prima facie case of theft, but as the pole has been there 19 years he is, I think, in a position to claim that it is occupying a "traditional" position and therefore he is entirely within his rights under common law to keep his pole there. The Council should expect a summons to the court under the theft act.
ReplyDeleteTTFN
By the same twisted logic, isn't it about time they removed street lamps, sign posts and other "accidents waiting to happen"...
ReplyDeleteIf it's been there for more than 10 years (even without planning permission) and no complaints have been made, he is entitled to seek a certificate of lawful use.
ReplyDelete"Rob Grice, a barber shop owner from Wigan, found this to his cost recently when his local council decreed that his barber's shop pole (a freestanding red and white erection...can I say erection?) presented a clear and present danger to the health and safety of pedestrians."
ReplyDeleteThese pillocks present a clear and present danger to my health, the way they keep raising my blood pressure with their antics! As has been pointed out, what the council have done amounts to theft, not to mention attempting to sell stolen property which, last time I looked, were both crimes. Thieving @&&%£**!!