Residents are being asked to report neighbours for 'environmental crimes' such as putting their bins out too early or late.And human nature being what it is, there will be some who will undoubtedly take full advantage of that opportunity...
A council is urging householders to snoop on fellow residents and fill in 'diary sheets' to log incidents - the same way it tackles violent anti-social behaviour.
The clampdown, by Hull City Council, has provoked a furious reaction, with residents insisting they won't do officials' 'dirty work' for them.Will this be a total, committed revolt? I have my doubts...
But maybe I shouldn't be too hard on Hull Council. After all, we know where this really comes from, don't we..?
15 comments:
If memory serves me correctly, it was the Binmen of Hull (employees of this very Council) who were filmed by a resident (who just happened to work for the Beeb) slinging waste which, in line with Council diktats had been sorted by residents (prior to collection by those same Binmen) ... into a nearby skip ..
I think Hull Council deserves to be reminded of the reprehensible behaviour of its own employees before they adopt Stasi tactics ..
As usual, I think you're right, JuliaM; the forthcoming cuts mean that a whole army of clipboard-wielding jobsworths will take up their golden handshakes and walk; to fill the void and get the boxes ticked, councils will happily recruit self-selected volunteers to 'monitor' neighbourhood activities.
Lace-curtain-twitchers of Britain, your moment has arrived!
It's disgusting, I'd refuse to pay my rates if it were me. That's not a service.
Most of the councillors are LibDims, so that explains it.
When are the heroes of the Conservative Party going to stop this? I thought they were cutting back on state interference?
Sue said...
Conservative Party going to stop this? I thought they were cutting back on state interference?
WHAT?
Dave Commyron and his band of amazing performing Apparatchiks?
Do us a FAVOUR!
He is just Captain Queeg Brown lite.
Answers on a post card.
FT; I've heard the Germans are fairly keen on the rubbish-out-at-the-right-time, don't-cut-the-lawn-on-Sunday business - how is it enforced over there?
Macheath said...
FT; I've heard the Germans are fairly keen on the rubbish-out-at-the-right-time, don't-cut-the-lawn-on-Sunday business - how is it enforced over there?
Easy question, with probably a long answer.
I will try and keep it short. ;-)
Rubbish out at the right time does not really concern us. We have two or three bin collections per week.
As to how it is enforced.
Hmm. We have the "Ordnungsamt", which are like a cross between glorified traffic wardens ( They do THAT as well), and wannabe policemen.
In fact in some Länder, they are armed, and trained in firearms along side the police!
In THEORY, you can get fined a LOT of money for "the wrong rubbish in the wrong bin". Sometimes they have a clamp down. But basically no one bothers much.
The rset depends.
If you own your own house/land, then no real problem. In cities, most people live in "multi occupational buildings", which is the posh name for "flats".
In a "tower block" all the rubbish goes down one chute, into the bins in the cellar.
Other than that, we have,similar to mine, where 32 flats (in my case. It can be fewer, or more, but...) will have a "bin park".
(We have Glass /Two colours, although for some reason, the all appear to end up in the same bin lorry, General rubbish, Bio, and recycling (Plastic) and paper.) that they all share.
IF your neighbours are O.K, then no one complains. BU, if you get a right little Hitler/ess, then you can get problems.
Then you get houses (A block of flats) in the likes of Stadtmitte, here in Berlin, which are full of immigrants, and they just throw the rubbish out of the window, from whichever floor they are on, into "the Hof".
No complaints from their neighbours. They all do the same.
When it becomes a health hazard, then the Ordnungsamt get involved, and start looking for evidence as to who has thrown the rubbish. Letters, etc.
THAT can lead to the one bastard who has thrown a letter out, getting charged for the removal of the LOT.
It CAN end in prison. But only in the same way a non payment of a parking fine can also land you in prison in the U.K.
THEN it depends on how strict your local "council", City council, Land Council is on the matter.
City center Berlin, is not the same as Hamburg, or the same as the ouitskirts of Berlin. Then you go out into the Villages, and you get something else again. (As to enforcement).
Really the permetations are like a Littlewoods football pools coupon.
Basically, the question among Germans, does not arise. It is all automatic that we seperate, and the bins are emptied so often, that a FULL bin rarley comes into question.
That was SHORT, bay the way!! :-))
The first neighbour that starts this nonsense with me will get my bin emptied in his back garden.
Even better; his bin emptied in the street, on the wrong day. I will then be forced to do my civic duty, and call the Council.
Soon these bass todds will be out in the general meltdown and then where will they hide?
Thanks, FT; I might have known there would be no simple answer to that one - to paraphrase de Gaulle, "How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of sausage?"
(To which, if my own past experience is anything to go by, a German would doubtless reply with impeccable politeness and unbelievably painstaking detail.)
Good point about frequent rubbish collections - as opposed to our fortnightly ones. I dare say there's a government department somewhere, at great expense, continuing the recent research into which particular rubbish-borne pestilence will eventually wipe us out when global warming takes hold.
Mein Furor, would you care to invade Pol....sorry, would you care to enlarge upon those points?
Town End would be MUCVH more preferable.
"Dr" Melv.....
@MacHeath: That's a horrible thought!
@Sue: I wouldn't put too much faith in iDave!
@Furor Teutonicus: Ah, if only we retained the concept of waste collection as a public health duty, as they do on the continent...
"From Hull (Council), Hell And Halifax..."
Is that an hommage to the late Eddie Waring?
Environmental crime? WTF exactly is that? Fly tipping.....yes. Setting fire to woodland.....yes, and arson to boot. putting my wheelie bin out the night before colection because they come early and at a variable time? I don't think so, but this bunch of tossers presumably thinks it is. Councils should remember who they work for. It's not the UK government nor the EU.
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