Council staff are being spat at, racially abused and attacked while delivering essential services amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Local Government Association (LGA) has said.
A Southend community support officer, who was enforcing the government’s social distancing guidelines, is said to be the latest victim in a series of incidents after a cyclist rode into him, breaking the officer’s leg on Thursday.Maybe they'll actually do something about cyclists now.
Many's the time I've walked down Southend High St to see the blue uniforms all in a huddle chatting, while completely ignoring the cyclists swerving around them.
The increase of abuse comes as some councils across the UK have scaled back on certain services – including reducing bin collections, and shutting recycling centres.And then the council moans that fly tipping is increasing...
H/T: Fahrenheit211 via Gab
"Brighton and Hove city council has temporarily suspended kerbside recycling collections amid “very limited staff,” with many self-isolating and working from home."
ReplyDeleteI wonder how a bin collector works from home?
More to the point, the volume of refuse generated in homes really ought to increase with self isolation, because of lunches no longer taken at work, or workers at home generating all the waste they used to at the office. Personally, I've been working from home for some years now (and nobody really noticed?) but on the grounds that an employer ought to provide all the necessary facilities to do a job, I wonder how many bought laptops and mobile phones for staff sent off to work from home.
Of course they won't cut back on Council Tax. They didn't when bin collections because fortnightly instead of weekly.
ReplyDeleteDear Miss Predator
ReplyDeleteO/T but ...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-52227363
... one for your MONA Files?
DP
When I lived and worked in Belgravia I never once saw a cycle on the pavement or footpath. Now I am back in my own town it's a real problem and we have had older people knocked down and receive life changing injury. I have many times asked why the law is enforced in London but not here. I have yet to receive an answer from the Police.
ReplyDeleteThere used to be a very cynical PoV that when local councils said they wouldn't collect certain rubbish (because, you know, costs and recycling demand and policy-whatevers), then some citizens would simply leave their junk on a street corner because eventually, even the politically correct Snodgrass-On-Puddle would notice and send a bin lorry round to pick it up.
ReplyDeleteUntil then the soiled mattress or oddly-stained sofa or broken telly would sit in public view for a couple of weeks. I do remember some plastic pedal car ending up in a variety of gardens near where i live until it worked its way downhill to the main road. Magically, it was taken away then.
"I wonder how a bin collector works from home?"
ReplyDeleteHeh!
"...... one for your MONA Files?"
Oh, yes! They published CCTV, but seem to have taken it offline now they've made arrests...
"I have many times asked why the law is enforced in London but not here."
I can assure you, it's rarely enforced in London either!
"...would notice and send a bin lorry round to pick it up."
There's been a rash of mattress dumping lately in my area. It seems as if every street corner or small patch of green is guaranteed to receive one eventually...