H&S strike again!

[Gob]

Dismay at ban on cutting

Wednesday, April 21, 2010,
.


CONTRACTORS have been banned from using strimmers in Newquay on health and safety grounds.

Workmen from Cornwall Council contractors SERCO have been told not to use them to cut grass after windows were broken and property damaged.
SERCO bosses said concerns over noise and vibrations were also considered. The lack of strimming equipment has left some residents fearing Newquay's parks and open spaces will not be maintained properly.

Joan Parker, of Pentire, said it was health and safety gone mad. "First I thought it was an April Fool joke, but it's not. "Poor old SERCO, just as they managed to cut the grass for the first time this year, they have had their strimmers banned by health and safety, so they can't do their job properly."

She said it was ridiculous to ban strimmers on safety grounds."If it's because they flick up stones, let's ban all cars as they can do that," she said.
"Let's ban all the gritters – not only do you get sand blasted, you get pebble dashed at the same time with them."Strimmers vibrate and make a noise, so let's ban jack hammers, disc cutters, drills with hammer mode… in fact, let's ban all power tools and make life really safe. Where is health and safety coming from? Are they assuming that nobody has any common sense any more?"

Dave Sleeman, chairman of Newquay Town Residents' Association said the strimming ban was crazy. "The town is going to look in an even bigger mess than ever. How are they going to around the bottom of trees? It beggers belief."

Newquay Town Council's monthly meeting last week also heard that the bushes on the islands at Trenance Boating Lake had been trimmed back too much, leaving ducklings nowhere to hide from the seagulls. Adam Fergie, the communications director for SERCO's environmental services department, said: "There have been third party claims, with strimmers causing stones to be flicked up and damaging cars and property, with broken windows and so on.
"There is also a general health and safety aspect with the vibration and noise.

"We are trialling a reduction in the use of strimmers in the area, but there will be no reduction in the service provided. We have decided that we will use more push mowers, rather than strimmers. We think this will give a better result."

[The Hen]

You fucked the Telstar windscreen with a strimmer.

It is costly to council to have to replace windscreens. I would reckon that the actual reason isn't health and safety but insurance premium increases.

[Gob]

You fucked the Telstar windscreen with a strimmer.

I didn't "fuck" it, I customised it. Those starburst patterns are all the rage I tell you!

...she would fucking bring that up, wouldn't she...

[The Hen]

You will post tabloid articles without considering the repercussions, won't you.

[Sean]

LMAO

Hoist by his own petard!

[Crackpot]

Do they actively recruit people with mental disorders to tun H&S?

[kristina]

No, they just wait for the rejects from the school boards.

[BoSoxGal]

No, they just wait for the rejects from the school boards.

[Gob]

Do they actively recruit people with mental disorders to tun H&S?

You have to wonder don't you?

We have regular H&S lectures at work. Of course in the increasing bureaucratised health service, these are now mandatory. The last one I went to, the guy taking it looked like a long streak of piss in a suit, I could have snapped him in half with one hand behind my back. He told us, and I kid you not, that we were not allowed to lift more than two reams of A4 paper at one time, and seeing as they come in boxes of 4 reams, we had to use a trolley to move a box. I informed him that at the gym that morning, I had been deadlifting 200 kilos, and he was telling me I wasn't allowed to lift more than 2 kilos? He told me it was now a reportable offense!

After he left I spent a good time walking about the office carrying three boxes of A4 I , no one reported me.

They all seemed to be pissing themselves with laughter for some reason...

[@meric@nwom@n]

What are or is strimmers?

[kristina]

What are or is strimmers?

We call 'em weed whackers, @w. IIRC, strimmer is a conjunction (sort of) of "String trimmer"

[@meric@nwom@n]

Ah, thanks for the translation into Englsh. *snert*

[Sean]

A strimmer is a whipper-snipper of course!

[kristina]

Ah, thanks for the translation into Englsh. *snert*

And they said all that time spent in front of BBC TV would be wasted...

There was one detective series based in Scotland that I never could understand...can't remember the name of it just now

[@meric@nwom@n]

I learned all my "Enlandish" watching All Creatures Great and Small on PBS.

[kristina]

I started out with the Forsyte Saga, moved up to Upstairs Downstairs, and have been helplessly addicted ever since. I'm trying to get the Resident Artist interested, but not much luck so far.

[Sean]

Ah, thanks for the translation into Englsh. *snert*

And they said all that time spent in front of BBC TV would be wasted...

There was one detective series based in Scotland that I never could understand...can't remember the name of it just now

It was probably Taggart.

"Inspayctor, there's bin a murrrdherrr!"

[kristina]

That's it! Thanks. I actually could understand some of it, but I spent so much time explaining what I did understand to the hubby that I missed the rest, and finally gave up!

[The Hen]

They should have sub-titles on it for American viewing.

[Sean]

Stuff that! With Taggart it's subtitles for anywhere south of Hadrian's Wall too...