Council Pension Black Holes.

I have just read Ambush Predator's Blog called "You've got to pick a pocket or two..."

An extract from the blog;

Colchester Council is set to use £250,000 of taxpayers’ money to increase its pensions contribution as it battles against a £51million blackhole.

That got me thinking for the reason why so many councils have employed more 'Parking SS officers Attendants'.

According to this article, in Conwy County;

ILLEGALLY parked motorists paid more than £1.15 million in parking charges across Conwy county in the last three years, it has emerged.

I wonder how much of the money obtained through the fines goes to pay for the wages and pensions of the council workers, not just in Conwy County, but all over the country

How long till this happens in Llandudno

I have just read this article at Big Brother Watch.

Another bird-feeding 'criminal' gets collared

Last year, Big Brother Watch covered the story of Vanessa Kelly - a young mum who had taken her toddler to the park and been issued with a £75 fine for throwing bread to the ducks. We fought a successful campaign in the media that led to Sandwell Council overturning the fine and admitting their error.

Today we have been dismayed to learn of another bird-feeding incident that has led to an elderly woman being slapped with an £80 on-the-spot fine (from SWNS):

A woman was fined £80 for littering after wardens caught her throwing bread crumbs – to the birds. Heartless rubbish spies spotted the frail woman sprinkling bread over her garden railings onto the pavement for starlings.

Voluntary group St Peter’s Neighbourhood Monitoring started the campaign to catch litter louts last year.

Spies record residents who litter then post the footage onto You tube. Neighbours are then encouraged to name and shame those dropping litter.

Footage of people who litter is passed to the local authority who are then able to use it as evidence to issue fines.

There are any number of authoritarian crimes here - from Neighbourhood Monitoring groups dishing out justice; to spying on residents and illegal covert camera recording - but once again the real tragedy is the victim: a law-abiding elderly woman who has been fined most of her weekly pension for feeding the birds.

Big Brother Watch intends to help this woman if possible - if anyone has any information about this incident please do contact us.

By Dylan Sharpe

With the town and county council running short of money will they start fining people for feeding birds on the West Shore?
 
Not forgetting the increase in council tax that is coming next year. I wonder how much that will be?
 
We already have council (SS) officers who have the right to enter your home without a warrant or a police presence. 
 
How long before we have more council (SS) officers giving out fines so the council can get the money to pay for their wages and pensions essential services.

Maesdu Bridge

Yes this again.

I have been thinking about how to get the bridge built on time.

Have a look at this and see if you think it's better than what we have going on at the moment.



Yes I propose to call Santander and get Lewis Hamilton down and ask him to build Maesdu Bridge like he did in the advert.

If we all pitch in we could get it done in about a day.

The best thing about it is any 5 year old upwards can help build it.

I think at the rate they are building the bridge at the moment the 5 year olds will do a better job.

Maesdu Bridge Repair

I don't do many blogs about local issues basically because there are other bloggers who do it much better than I could ever do.

With the Chilian earthquake in the news, my thoughts are with the Chilian people, but it reminded me of something that happened in 1994.

In 1994 Los Angeles was hit by an earthquake, and the freeway (motorway) system was severely damaged.

See Pics below. Pictures taken from http://ntl.bts.gov/lib/jpodocs/repts_te/13775.html

It was a massive undertaking to repair the freeway. From the look of all the damage you would think it would take months even years to repair the freeway, but if you take a look at the video, below, you will see something quite amazing.

Yes you heard right, the contractor was given 140 days to complete the repair, but they did it in about 70 days.

So I ask the question. If they can repair all of that freeway system, which included a large bridge section, in 70 days, why is it taking Conwy council 8 months to replace a small bridge?

The Los Angeles earthquake was 16 years ago, and technology has evolved in those 16 years, so why is it taking so long?

Why has this Bridge Cost £1.6 Million?

I have just read this article in the pioneer and i am wondering why it has cost £1.6 million.

I have no problem with the bridge being built, but why has it cost so much?

The Maesdu bridge is costing from £1.5 million to £2.3 million, but Maesdu bridge is being demolished and rebuilt for use by cars, buses and lorries as well as pedestrians and cyclist.

Was it built to budget?
If it was built to budget, who approved the budget for the bridge?
Is the £1.6 Million part of a bigger scheme that included the bridge?

Call me a simpleton if you like, but i can't see how a bridge like that can cost £1.6 Million.

Council Snoopers

I have just been reading this article about how councils have the authority to go into our PRIVATE homes without police presence or a warrant.

Here is a quote from the article;

The average local authority has 47 employees authorised to enter private homes, although some councils have hundreds of such inspectors.

The Home Office recently admitted that 1,043 different laws permit state inspectors to enter people’s homes and premises.

Although many of the laws are necessary to ensure public order and safety, there are growing concerns that proper vetting and supervision may not be in place for those authorised to enter private homes.

Why do you need 1,043 different laws just to enter someones home. What happened to the legal way of if there was suspicion of certain activities, criminal or otherwise, you go to a court and get a warrant?

The old way was for the police, or other organisations, go in front of a judge and asked for a warrant to search a premises. The judge would ask what evidence there was, the police told them and the judge would either sign the warrant or dismiss it due to lack of evidence.

Now it looks like a council worker can just enter our homes for practically any reason.

For all that's holy, that just isn't right.

As the old saying goes 'A man's home is his castle'.

I'd like to see a council officer try to step into my home without a policeman and a warrant.

This information comes from a report by 'Big Brother Watch' .

I had a read of the report and i was wondering how many council workers have the' authority' to enter (or at least try) our homes in the Conwy county.

Below is the answer;

Clackmannanshire Council 39
Colchester Borough Council 8
Coleraine Borough Council 25
Conwy County Borough Council 361
Cookstown 16
Corby Borough Council 21
Coventry City Council Denied -cost
Craigavon Council 7

Now i am wondering, why does Conwy county council need 361 officers, when the average is 47, who have the 'authority' to enter our homes with out a warrant, when other councils have so many less?

The laws were introduced under the anti terrorist law, but councils have been using it for ridiculous reasons, like checking if parents lied to get their child in a good school and checking if we are recycling properly.

Now if i ever saw an abuse of power this is it. It has to stop before this COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY, OUR COUNTRY falls into a pit that we will never get out of.

In previous blogs i wrote about this country becoming like the old Soviet block Stasi controlled states. Well i have changed my opinion. We are living, right now, in a stasi controlled state.

We have to change this before it is too late.

What a beach should be like

I just found the top picture on the internet. What a site this is or should i say was.

I am guessing that the top picture was taken late 50's early 60's, and the other was taken by myself last year.

As you will see we have the wooden partitions there to help keep the sand where it is. Today we don't have those partitions and as you have no doubt seen yourselves we have a beach that is mostly covered in rock, stone and shingle.

There is a small part that is still mostly sand but that is only about 100 yards between the pier and the concrete slipway.

I remember, just, from when i was a child. In the summers my friends and i would spend hours swimming in the sea, while our mothers chatted to one another and then calling us all in for lunch. We had so much fun in the summers back then.

In my opinion if we can get the beach back to what it was all those years ago maybe, if we get decent weather as well, we will get more holiday makers coming back to Llandudno and it will help revitalise the town.

A couple of years ago the council made a big publicity announcement about this machine that would clean the beach of the rocks and stone and shingle and give us back a sandy beach.

Well in the last couple of years i have seen nothing of that machine.
Is it broken?
Was it just a publicity stunt?
Doesn't anyone know how to drive it?
Or is it due to health and safety that the council cannot use it due to some stupid regulation.