Via The Englishman, this rather nasty little item:
Every household could have to nominate an adult who will take legal responsibility for its bins as townhalls start to crack down on residents who are not recycling properly.
Personally, I don’t have any gripe with the principle of recycling per se – it stems from my thrifty upbringing, I suppose, in that I abhor waste. So, if something can be reused, then, yes, why not? I do acknowledge that others tend to view it as unduly expensive, but that is not the argument here.
Because they had difficulty securing a prosecution, Plymouth council has gone for a different, more draconian, tack:
A draft letter from the Tory-led council includes a questionnaire which asks each household to nominate an adult who will take legal responsibility for its bins.
Note that it is not only Labour who can be deeply authoritarian – this is a Tory council. Why, at this point, do I tend to think of three parrots?
Ahem, back to the point. I wonder what Plymouth council will do if the people who pay their salaries unanimously tell them to fuck off and refuse to nominate a person to blame (hereafter referred to as the PTB)?
It gets worse, mind:
The questionnaire also asks about the number of adults and children living in a house, their medical conditions, and whether they use disposable nappies.
I’m sorry… But what fucking business is it of the town hall what medical conditions we have or what type of nappies parents choose to use? And, let it be clear, if South Gloucester try this little trick, their letter asking for a nominated PTB and prying into my private affairs will follow the last one they sent.
Locals, predictably, are angry – and that’s a good thing. It’s about time people got good and angry with these petty little self-righteous interfering, pernicious jackanapes who use their low position as a powerbase to bully, cajole and socially engineer the populace. Yes, get good and angry – then go get the rope and pitchforks.
Residents in Plymouth reacted with anger to the zero tolerance policy, claiming the council was to blame for debris left by late collections and rubbish spilled from the back of dustcarts.
“I for one will not be signing any responsibility for my bin because it is not lockable and I do not intend to stand guard on it overnight,” said Sid Anning of Crownhill, Plymouth.
He added: “The council needs to get its act together before it starts getting heavy handed on Joe Public.”
Yes, indeed. However, they have no place getting heavy handed at all.
Eric Pickles, the Conservatives’ shadow Local Government Secretary, added: “There is a growing public backlash at the over-zealous ‘Bin Bully’ policies cooked up in Whitehall for town halls to implement.”
“These latest rubbish tactics directly stem from rules passed by the Labour Government.”
“People are fed up with soaring council tax, aggressive use of bin fines and cuts to weekly collections – with new bin taxes coming soon on top.”
Yes, Eric. And just whose party is implementing this? Oh, yes, it’s yours. I suggest you send someone down from Conservative HQ to deliver a well deserved kick up the backside to your councillors down in Plymouth; they clearly are not in tune with your comments. While the rules may stem from Westminster (Brussels), the manner of implementation is entirely local and entirely by a Tory led council.
Cathryn Smith, a solicitor in Plymouth, said the form would not constitute a contract, but it could be used as evidence that someone had accepted responsibility.
“If you don’t sign it, the council would still have to prove who is responsible”, she said.
The answer, of course, is not to sign it. And if everyone affected does likewise, they are back to proving responsibility as before, without assistance from the accused. Also, a mass refusal to sign, mass disobedience, will send a powerful message to these bullies. Will the people of Plymouth do it, I wonder?
What if someone’s a single parent with enough things to do already without this bullshit? What if someone fills in the form claiming that they’re too thick to understand the concept of recycling and what can be recycled and what can’t, so can they please be excused? Will the council send someone round to give them a supervised intelligence test?
I was undecided about whether to vote Tory (just to get Labour out and hey, the Tories have to be better than Labour, right?), or to vote more with my beliefs and vote Libertarian. This kind of thing is deciding it for me.
That’s always presuming you have that choice at the ballot box. There are other factors here, too. The councillors are merely signing off stuff that is ultimately decided elsewhere – and, frankly, the real enemy here is the town hall employee; the person who doesn’t get elected on a regular basis. Of course, any half decent-freedom loving councillor would tell these people where to get off with this stuff…
“…frankly, the real enemy here is the town hall employee…”
Actually, given that this all stems from an EU directive to reduce landfill and impose fines on countries not recycling enough waste, I think that’s the ‘real enemy’.
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I alluded to the EU directive in the post. However, on this occasion, I disagree. The objective – wherever it comes from – is a reasonable one. The problem here is not the pressure to comply with the directive per se; it’s a different malaise; it’s the manner in which they are going about it, the feeling of power that the town hall minions now believe they have to wield.
The point being; they could comply with the EU directive without resulting to bully boy tactics and invasions of privacy.
The EU and its unelected nature is another matter…
I wonder, does the nominated person have to be alive? Do they even have to be aware that they are the nominated person?
If not, I suspect Lord Lucan may be in for a very nasty shock if he ever shows up again.
Do the same as the rest of Europe does. Pass the law and then ignore it. Only in England does the petty dictator exist who actualy believes anything should be done. The European way is the one public face of compliance and the real one of total indifferance, which often manifests as complete non co-operation.Is the Pope Catholic ? Do the Italians pay tax?
“Do they even have to be aware that they are the nominated person?”
Even better. Sign it with the name of your local councillor as the person responsible.
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I like that idea 😉