Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Old-Nail]

I sometimes have to pinch myself to check I'm not dreaming (or more accurately having a nightmare) when I read of some of the things that are happening to our society.

I read recently of a man that came home from work to find his wheelie bin hadn't been emptied even though he had left it out for collection.

Thinking this was just an oversight he took it back in and put it out again the following collection date which, as we know in England is now two weeks later.
On this occasion the dustbin was understandably quite full and again upon returning home he was again greeted with an un-emptied bin!

The householder checked, and all the other bins in the street had been emptied so his was the only one missed and it now seemed deliberately so.
This prompted him to ring the local council as he could not go a month without having his refuse taken away, and they duly dispatched no fewer than NINE different council officials at different times to MEASURE the distance between the dustbin and the kerbside!

The reason his dustbin had not been collected they concluded, was that it was more than arms length from the end of the kerb!

The council argued that any dustbin placed further than arms length from the end of the kerbside was not to be collected 'on health and safety grounds!'
Now for me this raises several interesting issues;

Firstly if a dustbin takes up space and thereby causes an obstruction to a public thoroughfare which has precedence- the pedestrian or the dustbin?

Secondly, who's arm do they use to define 'Arms length?' being six foot I have a long reach, a five foot woman may not have the same reach so who exactly is allowed to put out the dustbin to position it correctly?

Finally, when applying for a job as a dustman does the application form have a column for 'length of arm' measurement to ensure standard 'arms reach' policy in it's recruits?

For a country in which the inhabitants can now be fined and criminalised for either putting a sheet of paper in 'the wrong bin' (£50.00 fine and a criminal record) or mistakenly "Putting the bin out on the wrong day" (£100.00 fine and a criminal record) I think the various councils up and down this once great land of ours should look a little closer at their own role in creating this laughable situation... laughable that it if it weren't absolutely true!

Sleep soundly fellow Brits, Mr. Blair is looking after you!

[buzzy bee]

We once got warned by the council for putting our bins slightly on the pavement, they must go on the drive as they are blocking the public highway, all thanks to a old woman opposite!!

[alfanut]

Let's put it bluntly, this council by playing the health and safety card are lying. The hazards for dustmen are: getting caught up in the dustcart's mechanism, straining themselves by lifting heavy or unbalanced objects, dangerous or sharp objects (although this shouldn't be a problem with wheely bins) and getting hit by vehicles as they emerge from the rear of the dustcart. None of these are affected by where the dustbin is.
Useful tip, if any organisation tries this type of thing on, ask to see the risk assessment. You can not only check whther there is any danger, but also, by appearing to know something about the subject, start them panicking

[Scotty]

Don't even get me started on this one! Trust me, the same nonsense is going on up here in Scotland as well - all thanks to Blair and his sudo-conservative Labour party (Apologies to Labour supporters - and remember I'm Scottish, so 90% of us vote Labour).

I come home each week to run the gauntlet of discarded re-cycleable waste containers scattered about in the road because the bin-men are too lazy to place them back onto the pavement. Raise it with the council and all you get is excuses about time constraints, levels of service, etc - what a load of BS!

Now see what you've done, I'm away to kick one of my cats - Lenin or Stalin!

[Old-Nail]

"Now see what you've done, I'm away to kick one of my cats - Lenin or Stalin!"

He he! considering the way things are going those cars are aptly named!

[john-saab]

Bins have been collected from my back alley for 120 years...last year it was claimed that the red bricks that line the alley were too dangerous for the bin men to walk on...they might slip if it is wet. Now we put the bins out the front...the pavement is made of the very same bricks and whats more the same bin men come back later in the day to do the commercial bins...so they walk all the way down the alley to collect bins from the Hotel that we back onto.
If i drop a piece of litter i can get fined...so why is it that the bin men can split and throw a whole bags worth of rubbish on the pavement and no one batters an eyelid (apart from us)?

[xkjaguar]

Bins have been collected from my back alley for 120 years

ooooerrrr mrs

[Uncle Joe]

You know guys, you have all made me very hppy with this posting! Why? Because I'm glad to see that its not only here that we have stupids in charge of rubbish collecting!

As Scotty said...dont get me started on this!

UJ

[old gto]

If it makes you all feel better, don`t think you`re alone!
One day my wife was working in the yard when the refuse truck rolled up. The man jumped off the back, tugged at one of the many bags beside the curb, then jumped back on the truck without taking any. My wife yelled out, "Aren`t you going to take those?"
The man hollered back, "No lady, those bags are too heavy!"
Brewing by now, my wife shouted, "I put them out there, and I`m a girl! Do you want ME to throw them into the truck for you?"
Embarrased, the guy then climbed down and loaded the bags!

[Old-Nail]

Well at least the guy got embarrassed! I don't think it would have made a difference to our guys if a 90 year old granny had put them there as they would have some EU ruling or other to back them up.

Note: EU = European union, a thing that allows other countries governments to tell you how to run your own country.

[erindoors]

We had our bin collection changed from every week to every fortnight, the week they don’t collect the normal rubbish bin, they then collect the recycling bin instead.

We heard reports that our area was one of the ones that was to have the bins micro-chipped so I decided to go and check if ours was one of then, and sure indeed the recycling bin had a microchip well hidden underneath the lid.

I promptly called Mr Erindoors, asked him to get a screw driver and removed the offending object so the Council wouldn’t have any more data from us!!! It’s still in a drawer somewhere.

Strange enough, so far, we haven’t yet been contacted as to why we have removed the microchip… funny hey???

I presume this microchip was monitoring the weight of the bin, perhaps even the movements of it, i.e, how often it gets emptied etc.

This seems to me a bit over the top, this sort of technology must be costing quite a bit - for which we are paying for of course through the council tax.

I would quite happily not pay the council tax and go to the tip myself as and when necessary, but even this has also now been made more complicated as you now have to get a permit from the Council if you want to get rid of anything that doesn’t fit in a normal car, i.e. if you are taking a trailer or a pickup you have to then get a permit in advance, and even then, you can only have so many per year.

A wise man said to me: this country had gone to the dogs!!!!!!!

Anyway, back to the kitchen sink now………….

Erindoors

[Scotty]