FruitBat (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} al_fruitbat) wrote,@ 2009-08-28 07:45:00 |
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My council? RyanAir? EasyJet? Don't make me laugh...
For some reason - most likely the usual blatantly untrue press release in silly season - my local council has got themselves into the papers this morning. This isn't particularly unusual - they feature in Private Eye's 'Rotten Boroughs' section with depressing regularity.
What is unusual is both the spectrum of the papers reporting it (both The Grauniad and The Torygraph) and the apparent similarity of their stories, (although as you might expect, the Torygraph is keen on the idea, whereas the Grauniad is deeply suspicious).
My local council is Barnet, which is apparently a Budget Airline Council, and also a Tory Test-Pilot of no-frills government.
Thing is, our local council has for several years been pissing me off by stupid and extravagant spending on seemingly wasteful schemes, then sending no end of letters to us about them. The concept that some of these moronic projects might actually be curtailed is - to my mind - wholly sensible.
A few years ago, we got a letter saying 'We want your opinion on council tax rise'. We were allowed to vote if we wanted the price to rise by 4%, 8% or 12%. It came with a glossy pamphlet explaining how nice they could be to people if we voted for a 12% pricerise, and how sad they would be if they could only increase it by 4%. Nowhere was the option "Try and spend less money" available, and our council tax is by no means cheap.
Barnet was the first council to introduce the idea (with great fanfare and a PR campaign) of legally punishing people for not using their recycling boxes. Fuck knows how they did that - presumably paid the salaries of 'recycling inspectors' or bunged cash at the binmen who noticed the clanking of glass bottles in the main wheelybins. Bet it wasn't free though.
Two months ago, a bloke came to the door with a clipboard and badges. He wanted me to go through a long (and expensively printed) questionnaire about our green habits - like did we take public transport or use low-energy bulbs. He tried - very hard - to get me to 'sign up' to a pledge to reduce some part of our 'evironmental impact'. I politely told him to shove off and go and talk to Tescos and Waitrose about their packaging.
Two weeks ago, dozens of big plastic posters appeared on every lampost around our house. Individual colour prints smugly declaiming "17 households of XXX Terrace have pledged to walk to work" and "9 households of KY Avenue have promised to recycle their fudge"*. Again, I bet all of this prim sanctimonious crap wasn't cheap, and it's a sort of low-level irritant as you walk along the street.
Anyway, rant over. We certainly don't live in a 'Budget Airline' council at the moment - more like the typical bureaucratic do-gooding bunch of wastrels (for comparison, I've also lived for ages in Haringey and Oxford, which felt much the same). A bit of cost-cutting would do our local area no end of good, IMO.
*May not appear on actual posters
For some reason - most likely the usual blatantly untrue press release in silly season - my local council has got themselves into the papers this morning. This isn't particularly unusual - they feature in Private Eye's 'Rotten Boroughs' section with depressing regularity.
What is unusual is both the spectrum of the papers reporting it (both The Grauniad and The Torygraph) and the apparent similarity of their stories, (although as you might expect, the Torygraph is keen on the idea, whereas the Grauniad is deeply suspicious).
My local council is Barnet, which is apparently a Budget Airline Council, and also a Tory Test-Pilot of no-frills government.
Thing is, our local council has for several years been pissing me off by stupid and extravagant spending on seemingly wasteful schemes, then sending no end of letters to us about them. The concept that some of these moronic projects might actually be curtailed is - to my mind - wholly sensible.
A few years ago, we got a letter saying 'We want your opinion on council tax rise'. We were allowed to vote if we wanted the price to rise by 4%, 8% or 12%. It came with a glossy pamphlet explaining how nice they could be to people if we voted for a 12% pricerise, and how sad they would be if they could only increase it by 4%. Nowhere was the option "Try and spend less money" available, and our council tax is by no means cheap.
Barnet was the first council to introduce the idea (with great fanfare and a PR campaign) of legally punishing people for not using their recycling boxes. Fuck knows how they did that - presumably paid the salaries of 'recycling inspectors' or bunged cash at the binmen who noticed the clanking of glass bottles in the main wheelybins. Bet it wasn't free though.
Two months ago, a bloke came to the door with a clipboard and badges. He wanted me to go through a long (and expensively printed) questionnaire about our green habits - like did we take public transport or use low-energy bulbs. He tried - very hard - to get me to 'sign up' to a pledge to reduce some part of our 'evironmental impact'. I politely told him to shove off and go and talk to Tescos and Waitrose about their packaging.
Two weeks ago, dozens of big plastic posters appeared on every lampost around our house. Individual colour prints smugly declaiming "17 households of XXX Terrace have pledged to walk to work" and "9 households of KY Avenue have promised to recycle their fudge"*. Again, I bet all of this prim sanctimonious crap wasn't cheap, and it's a sort of low-level irritant as you walk along the street.
Anyway, rant over. We certainly don't live in a 'Budget Airline' council at the moment - more like the typical bureaucratic do-gooding bunch of wastrels (for comparison, I've also lived for ages in Haringey and Oxford, which felt much the same). A bit of cost-cutting would do our local area no end of good, IMO.
*May not appear on actual posters
