Jobsworths ride again...

[Gob]

Council jobsworths refused to help a frail pensioner dispose of her television, saying they would break health and safety rules if they carried it from her house.

Charlotte Cubitt, 85, from Colchester, Essex, decided to get rid of her old television and was ready to pay an £11 charge to have the council collect it because it was far too heavy for her to take to the dump.

But she was shocked when she was told that if she wanted the TV to be collected she would have to drag it to the kerbside herself because of health and safety concerns for council workers.

She said: 'They told me I would have to put the TV outside my house because health and safety concerns prevented the men from carrying it out of the house.

'I have seen these men and they are generally quite hefty and are employed because of their ability to handle heavy sacks of rubbish.

'Countless times I have watched a man pick up five or six black bags - sometimes even more - and then stagger across the road to the assembly point.

'What would be the risk of taking a TV from my house to carry it a couple of yards to sit on the kerb to await collection?'

Officials from Colchester Borough Council told Mrs Cubitt to ask her neighbours if they were willing to carry the heavy old television.

But Mrs Cubitt was outraged that the council was prepared to let someone else do their work.

She said: 'Would I be responsible if the neighbour suffered an injury?

'I don't understand it because the council must have insurance that would cover them, although I think it unlikely someone would be hurt carrying a television out to the road.'

Colchester Council was involved in another 'elf 'n' safety row in February when its workers were banned from taking rubbish out of dustbins.

Bill Craig, 80, used a wheelie bin to help him carry one small black bag of rubbish to the end of his drive.

But the council left him a warning note saying he was using the wrong kind of container for his rubbish.

Officials told a bemused Mr Craig that bin men could no longer lean in to the wheelie bin to take away the black bag in case they injured themselves.

Astonishingly, the council planned to pay for a specialist team to go to the former fisherman's semi-detached house in West Mersea, Essex, to collect the rubbish instead.

Martin Hunt, council deputy leader and Street and Waste Services Portfolio Holder, said: 'Colchester Borough Council provides a collection service for unwanted, large household items, including electricals, for a small charge.

'Electrical and electronic waste collected is sent for recycling.

'The council requires items to be left for collection clearly at the front boundary of the property by 7am on the morning of the collection date.

'However for residents with physical or other limitations who are unable to place items at their property boundary, the council will collect the item from a suitable agreed collection point outside the property but within the property boundary that can be used instead.

'This is in line with the assisted collection service provided for the council’s other recycling and rubbish collections.

'The council is unable to collect items from inside the property because of possible insurance claims against the council.

'The council considers it the responsibly of the resident or their family to take the item to the agreed collection location.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1OXCUaJrm

[BoSoxGal]

I get such a kick out of these stories of barking mad bureaucracy that you post here, Gob. Thanks much!

[The Hen]

Ferfucksake!

The fucking old woman was too fucking frail and fucking weak to move the fucking telly as it was too fucking heavy and was paying some of her good fucking money to have the fucking council take the fucking telly for her due to it's fucking weight.

WHAT THE FUCK DON'T THEY GET ABOUT THAT FUCKING CONCEPT?

[Scooter]

It would be absolutely unheard of here for garbage collectors to come into someone's house to pickup an item for disposal. It would not occur to anyone to even ask.

[Guinevere]

Exactly Scooter, that little old lady is crackers. I pay a private contractor for my trash and recycling (we don't have municipal service), and if its not at the curb by 7AM, its not getting picked up. They wouldn't go into my house, and I wouldn't want them in my house. When I had some heavy, bulky items to dispose of I had to get my own help to move it out.

[Scooter]

Gob highlights this:

'The council is unable to collect items from inside the property because of possible insurance claims against the council.

as if it were a completely unreasonable consideration for the council to be making, but there are potentially HUGE liability concerns associated with garbage collectors entering people's homes when it was never contemplated that they would ever do so:

the workers hurting themselves tripping and falling while manoeuvering a heavy object up and down stairs or around obstacles in the house
the workers injuring the homeowner or damaging the homeowner's property doing same
the workers being accused of stealing property from the house
the workers being accused of extorting money from the homowner to remove the property, as opposed to it being a voluntary offer of payment
etc., etc., etc.

[The Hen]

It is something we do for our elderly here. I have arranged this through Community Services on a number of occasions when the elderly, weak and informed have called the Minister to complain about their issue.

They pay for it, they get it, the Government supports it.

[Scooter]

They obviously have a system in place (including appropriate insurance coverages, bonding, police checks, etc.) to deal with it where you live. Obviously they don't where this woman lives.

[Gob]

Normally big strong dustbin men and waste collectors would have no hesitation in helping out an old lady, it's only when the bureaucrats stick their noses in we get this sort of shit.

[Gob]

[The Hen]

It isnt difficult for insurance to be given to community services. The government supports the community services by way od subsidies for services we don't run. the elderly and informed then receive the assistance they need.

None of this fucking jobsworth stuff necessary.

I can't believe the UK can't organize this minor basic thing.

http://www.localcommunityinsurance.com.au/

[Guinevere]

It seems pretty damn whiney to me, and we all know I'm a bleeding-heart liberal who loves big government.

Seriously, can't she find a couple neighborhood kids to take in out for her? Give them some cookies, er, biscuits, in exchange.

[Scooter]

Fine, so community agencies can get insurance to provide services to the elderly. That's wonderful. What does it have to do with government employees or contractors refusing to take on responsibilities outside the scope of their work because it creates liabilities with which they are not prepared to cope?

[Gob]

It has to do with the world you live in Scoot, where dustbinmen cannot shift a TV for an old age pensioner due to "liability concerns."

Some of us would prefer not to live in that workld.

[The Hen]

Neighbourhood kids would not be covered for injury if they slipped and hurt themselves. The Government employed contractors through Community Services would be.

What did my link have to do with it Scoot?

These services are run by Government contractors through community services, so it has everything to do with it. The link to the insurance was to show you that they get insurance coverage for the service.

It was only answering your issue.

[Scooter]

It has to do with the world you live in Scoot, where dustbinmen cannot shift a TV for an old age pensioner due to "liability concerns."

Some of us would prefer not to live in that workld.

It would be wonderful if none of us had to live in that world, but unfortunately, all of us do.

What would happen if, god forbid, a dustbinman who had not been appropriately screened, because his job responsibilities do not require him to enter people's houses, sexually assaulted that woman and it turned out that he had a record as a sex offender? You think such things don't happen? It's one of the reasons why employers who have workers entering people's homes submit them to criminal background checks and take out insurance protecting against such acts.

What would happen if the dustbinman twisted the wrong way lifting that TV set out of her house and permanently injured his back? Who is going to be responsible, and how much money will be spent on lawyers trying to figure it out?

[Gob]

We can all think of a million negative "what if's" Scoot mate, and I'm sure we can all dream up a million terrible tragedies that may occur if a dustbinman were to help a little old lady out by shifting a heavy TV for her.

However, the 99.99999999999% probability is that, as it was before H&S became so dominant in our lives, what would have happened would have been that the dustbinman would have shifted the TV for her, she'd have been happy and less stressed, and he would have gone away with a five pound tip in his pocket. Nothing more, nothing less.

However we now live in a world where we e are afeared to help out our elderly neighbours due to stupid concocted "what if's" driven by industries which thrive on making us afraid to do absolutely anything without paying homage to them.

[Scooter]

What you claim to have been concocted is, unfortunately, the fruit of bitter experience.

Who would have thought, 40 or 50 years ago, that it would have been dangerous to leave children alone in the company of their priest? And yet today, a church would be stupid not to insure itself against the possibility that the child can be raped.

[Gob]

Apples and oranges. the waste collection service is not known as an organisation which harbours shelters and colludes with a granny rapists. Actual incidents of that happening? None that I am aware of...

[Scooter]

Took me five seconds.