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We have a bright and shiny new government and I’d like to think that one of the messages it ought to send out to local councils is: ‘Stop Messing About With Trivia!’
Every day we hear of the sort of council silliness that causes untold stress and unhappiness to the people involved.
Like the 95-year-old lady in Swansea who was threatened with legal action because, mistakenly, she put an empty butter tub in the wrong recycling bag. Or the great-grandmother who, while picking up her dog’s poo in a Houghton-le-Spring park, was pounced upon by two so-called environmental enforcement officers who claimed she had picked up the wrong dog’s mess and handed her a £50 fixed penalty notice.
Once other people started screaming about these incidents the councils concerned backtracked. And so they should. Officials ought to concentrate their efforts on more important issues than these.
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We have a bright and shiny new government and I’d like to think that one of the messages it ought to send out to local councils is: ‘Stop Messing About With Trivia!’
Every day we hear of the sort of council silliness that causes untold stress and unhappiness to the people involved.
Like the 95-year-old lady in Swansea who was threatened with legal action because, mistakenly, she put an empty butter tub in the wrong recycling bag. Or the great-grandmother who, while picking up her dog’s poo in a Houghton-le-Spring park, was pounced upon by two so-called environmental enforcement officers who claimed she had picked up the wrong dog’s mess and handed her a £50 fixed penalty notice.
Once other people started screaming about these incidents the councils concerned backtracked. And so they should. Officials ought to concentrate their efforts on more important issues than these.
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