Monday 17 May 2010

Calling Carl In Hull

Via Julia, I see something rather sinister has been mooted in Hull.

Residents are being asked to report neighbours for 'environmental crimes' such as putting their bins out too early or late.

A council is urging householders to snoop on fellow residents and fill in 'diary sheets' to log incidents - the same way it tackles violent anti-social behaviour.
In fact, more than mooted. It is being reported as a done deal.

Now, this is all rather disappointing as I've met the leader of Hull City Council and he's a good sort, quite the anti-authoritarian, in fact. If only there was some way of asking him to comment on what does appear to be a quite appallingly illiberal, and socially divisive, policy, eh?

Hold on, I have just remembered that he reads here! Or used to, anyway, though it's possible he could have got bored with all my 'tabloid' crap.

Perhaps if we get in a circle, hold hands, wear flowers in our hair and chant in unison, we can tempt him to say hello. It's worth a try, no?

So, altogether now, breathe deeply, meditate, and repeat after me ... Carl Minns, why the blithering fuck are your lot even considering this nonsense?


14 comments:

Andrew Allison said...

He isn't, so I am informed. A policy not reviewed from Labour days. It's going, as is the title of Environmental Crimes Manager.

paulo said...

"Environmental Crimes Manager." WTF is that?

Words fail...


paulo

Anonymous said...

AGW I suppose as he's come through a state education he may or may not actually understand that abbreviation.

It's a con mate.
When the extra energy bills come in .
Perhaps you need to extend the mortuaries to accommodate more of those who cannot pay them ?
Just a thought.
But then, perhaps the Maltheusians are alive and well.

Andrew Allison said...

Anonymous: You have not hidden yourself very well. You're still as negative and as uninspiring as ever.

Anonymous said...

There are millions and millions of anonymous people.
We do not need to hide.
We hide in the silent majority.

ps
Same anonymous.
LOL

Catosays said...

This was covered on BBC Look North tonight.
It's a non-event....the snooping that is.

Dick Puddlecote said...

Cato: That's good to hear. :-)

Hopefully Carl will still pop along anyway though, it's been a while.

Mrs Rigby said...

Some parts of Europe have daily collections, and also manage to find time to wash out the bins. That's called a service, don't you think?

Frank Davis said...

You sometimes sound a bit defensive about the 'tabloid' charge, Dick. You shouldn't be. 'Tabloid', as far as I'm concerned, means 'readable'.

a@b.com said...

I'm at uni in Hull Dick...it's an interesting place. Literally a camera on every corner, there's one actually on the road outside our house. It was Labour when I arrived here, though since the councils changed hands - not that a Liberal Democrat council is anymore liberal than a Labour one - in fact they're arseholes with everything, including bins. They also seem to be one of the better councils at promoting themselves - the amount of crap we get through our door telling us how good they are at spending peoples money is quite irritating.

I have to pay £35 a year, just for a parking space outside my house - yet I can never use it when I need to, because they're always full of people from the school round the corner. Anyway, last week, I got a parking ticket, and kicked up such a fuss on the phone that I got it revoked. Petty, but actually making someone at the council serve me for once was pretty good fun.

Dr Evil said...

Environmental Crimes Manager!!! Jaysus.

woman on a raft said...

Mark Cornall is the Environmental Crimes Manager for Hull City Council.

You can catch him giving a presentation (don't know if he's being paid twice for this) at the Inside Government conference on 14 September.

10:30
Using Intelligence to Modernise Enforcement: Hull City Council
* Operation Cerebus: Using intelligence to tackle environmental crime in specific neighbourhoods
* Operation Hades: Stop and Search on illegal waste carriers
* Enviro-Crime surgeries within each area neighbourhood team
* Operation Cubit: Target abandoned vehicles
Mark Cornall, Environmental Crime Manager, Citysafe, Hull City Council (invited)


If you want to book places you can get a discount if you rack up your local council's budget now.
Costs:

1 day event rates are:
Local Government
1st place £325 / 2nd & 3rd £285
Central Government
1st place £385 / 2nd & 3rd £355
Third Sector
1st place £225 / 2nd & 3rd £199
Private Sector
1st place £745 / 2nd & 3rd £745


Don't forget to claim your overnight hotel and food expenses.

If anybody can take a look at GovNet.co.uk
Govnet communications ltd, I'd be grateful as they seem to be the holding wallahs for this but I'm not sure I'm looking at the right set of accounts.

Carl Minns said...

Sorry Dick. May was a crazy month and i have not had the time to visit hear much. i have just found this looking for something else. As andrew pointed out. The staff were using a (very old) policy, although given my views on this i would have thought SOMEONE would have drawn my attention to this. Anyhoo, this was dead within 24 hours of it becoming public and the policy is bing changed

Dick Puddlecote said...

Good to hear, Carl. Thanks for the update. :-)