THIS BIRD HAS FLOWN: THE LAST PIGEON CRAP POST

The freedom of information act is a wonderful thing, you can write a letter to Liverpool City Council and ask them why they spent £18,000 on shelter for the Chief Exec’s car.

The reason given in the news at the time was the council were being sued by visitors for pigeon shit damage to their cars.

What worried me was the suing story sounded like it was a big fat porky pie. I was also bemused by the fact the council seemed to be admitting ownership of wild pigeons, which sounded ludicrous.

Well guess what, the beloved officers of the city did in fact circumvent the normal democratic systems for allocating budgets (i.e. the Councillors decide) and spending under standing orders section 135 of the local government act 1972. They voted (if it went to a vote)  to cover their own cars and to make up a story, to cover their arses.

Also no one actually sued the council.

Finally there is a sign up in the car park which states the council has no responsonsibility for loss or damage, so the council doesn’t own the pigeons after all. That must be a massive relief.

So what does all this mean……well one thing…they think we are stupid, they think they can spend yours and my money and then make up a phoney baloney story, which makes it look like the cover is saving us all from being taken to court, when in point of fact we are being taken to the cleaners more like.

If it’s like this for “small” amounts of money imagine the possible “graft” going on when there are millions involved.

Muzzle them all, it’s dog eat dog out there

Ok cards on the table, I’m a dog lover and in an ideal world dog’s wouldn’t bite kids in the face or even kill them, but guess what, they are wild (tamed) animals. They are wolves who have been genetically engineered to help Man.

So we’ve made them bigger, smaller, thinner, fatter, madder or more docile, but when you’ve take all this back to basics, they are a wolf in wolf’s clothing.

So why are we surprised when they do turn and when they do kill. The lastest is a Ridgeback which has attacked a 4 year old and his Dad in North Wales, badly biting the kid’s face and the Dad’s hand. The ridgeback has been put to sleep.

Now the Ridgeback breed was put together in South Africa from native dogs (where the ridge comes from) and several other breeds. As well as  guarding the homesteaders in the Transvaal, they were also bred to keep lions at bay, the hunters used to set two ridgies  onto the lion, they would keep it busy then the White Hunter would shoot the poor beast. So you can imagine all this genetic history is mixed up and going on in the average Ridgeback’s brain, great on the veldt but useless in Kensington.

An other thing, at Freshfields Rescue Centre  I used to walk a ridgeback cross (with an Alsatian) and we were on the verge of taking him on as he had been in there a long time and he did cute things, (roll over play dead all that stuff) and the night before we signed the papers, he was on the mat in front of the fire and he started choking, I went to help him and he went to eat me, and took a bite out of my hand this left me having to get six stitches and a big scar on my right palm, talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

So where is all this going, well a couple of things, its all down to respect and responsibility……the animal is yours, you take responsibility for it and you respect others…so you dont let it attack people or other animals, and you take responsibility for where it shits and what happens to the shite.

Microchipping all dogs mean they can be identified, all dogs must be chipped, all police cars have  mobile chip reader, so a random stop will immediately tell the police firstly is the dog chipped, no chip so the dog gets hauled away until you get it done, or you sign the dog over to a rescue organisation. If it chipped then it would also say whether the dog had an up to date licence and who owned the dog.

You also to have your dog on a lead when outside and muzzled in public. The cost of all this, well I reckon £25 to £50 isnt too much to pay per year. The revenue raised would pay for the scanners and extra dog warden patrols, plus offenders would be fined for not complying.

All sounds a bit like a fascist state (First they came for the dogs and no one said anything……..) but let’s face it what’s more fascistic than kids, cat owners and small dog owner’s frightened for their own or their pets safety, afraid to go out just in case Tyson from down the road decides to snack on your little Tiddles.

Let’s get the priorities right, they are dogs, and dogs are animals. They’ve got to come and but people need to take responsibility before more kids are killed and maimed.

And this is coming from a dog  lover, a responsible and respectful one at that, and one that doesnt even have a dog at present, what’s that all about

More about CLTs

The more I read about Community Land Trusts (see earlier blogs) the more I feel this might be the solution to most of the housing nonsense in the regeneration area of Kensington.

The concept of actually passing the whole process over to the people who it affects might seem too radical for words but you know what ……….”It might just work” …….to the batpoles Robin.

Scally is as Scally does

Well all the locks are changed so me keys are now rendundent. But out of devilment I decided to stick a notice in the window “Bunch of Keys Lost – Reward”.

About 3 I’m going to the Post Office and there’s these three scalies on bikes, and one shouts over “What are the keys like you’re looking for?” “Are they two black ones?”, I say no, the car keys are two black ones so they are either psychic or they were the ones who picked them up. “Well were they a big bunch” chipped in the third Stooge, number oen Stooge decides he can revela a bit more of his mentalist abilties “Yeah they’re the sort of keys that would fit the car which is usually there (i.e. my car)”.

So then it’s “Eh mate, what’s the reward then?”, to which I responded, “Come over here and I’ll tell you”, none of them were that stupid.

But let’s just look at the facts here, they kept the keys on the hope of robbing from my car stealing it or breaking into my house, not of which they can now do, so all they’ve got it a big fat zilch.

If on the other hand their smack befuddled parents had instilled in them an iota of publix spiritness, that is if they had taken a more altruistic view, knocked on my door and asked if these kes were mine they would £20 better off, they might even feel good about themselves, instead of being snidey, underhanded wretches who will no doubt be seeing the inside of a Young Offenders institution in the not to distant future. Maybe they can use my bunch of keys to gain escape.

 it’s a Scally by jove

Where’s my f*ck*ng keys, sleepless in Kensington

I very rarely lose things but last night I lost all my keys…car…..house…bike locks…the lot.

It all started at about 5pm, I unloaded a cooker from my car and must have dropped my keys outside my house. nut it wasn’t untl nine when my car alarm and I looked for them and couldn’t find them that the panic set in.Got the spare stopped the alarm and locked the car. After an hour of fruitless searching decided they would probably turn up.

At 1am car alarm goes off again, I rushed out to find the car door open, so obviously someone had fund them earlier and was trying to steal from the car. Lately in this area community safety has got a little bit more hairier…I got burgles last July and there have been a series of other break-ins, it sound bad but it’s probably only one or two people who are feeding a habit or who are just plain baddies. It only takes a few people to skew an area.

Anyhow leaving the keys on a plate isn’t exactly a clever step and doing something as stupid as this makes you think your are going mad.

So in order to make sure things dont escalate and the car doesn’t disappear I get me quilt torch mobile phone crowbar (well you never know ) wooley hat and scarf and decant to the car to kip in there.

4.30am after and hours sleep I decide they are probably not coming back, maybe the steamed up windows put them off.

Go back inside and look through my insurance policy and found out I could get all the locks changed for £120, so got on the phone to Norwich union and they sent a recovery lorry out to pick the car up to take it to a garage in ormby to get sorted, plus I should be getting a courtesy car sometime today.

I’ve also got to cut the locks off my mountain bike and change the locks on the front door.

Just when you thought you might be having a quiet day.

Is there an upside, well yes, as I’ve been up all night I’ve polished off a PowerPoint presentation which I as having writer’s block over, and I also discovered of a legal entity the government has set up and is promoting called Community Land Trusts, a way of communities owning and developing properties for the community benefit.

If you read my last blog you might be able to understand the significance of this fact, this would eb a workable solution to the urban blight which is affecting Kensington where I live.

The big problems with CLTs is that commercial companies dont make any money from them an also local bureaucratic institutions have to hand over control, real control to the local community. they say they are empowering us and regenerating us, but there’s a huge gap between the rhetoric and the reality.

So this enforced lack of sleep also empowered me to email several people who actually control the fate of these houses.

this is the email which went out

Dear Tom, Lyn and Colin

Please take a moment to read this email,

I am writing in response to the fire which destroyed the property on Prescot Road last week and how as a regeneration area the council, KNDC and C7 are missing out on timely opportunity to use the high profile location of the houses to benefit the area and the residents of the area, and also your organisations

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Without going into too much detail instead of leaving the houses vacant is currently happening a Communtiy Land Trust could be set up,

The houses transferred over to the CLT or bought for a nominal amount. Currently the houses are not generating income for anyone at present so what is there to lose?

There are several legal structures the CLT could be established as including a CIC or company limited by guarantee (http://www.communitylandtrust.org.uk/documents/legalperspective.pdf http://www.communitylandtrust.org.uk/documents/Affordablehousing.pdf). Both of these mdels would be not for profit and Social Enterprises.

The CIC could borrow from the Charity bank (i’ve already asked them and they reckon about £500,000 is possible and it is something that they want to start investing in) or the Ecology building society, also interested in investing in urban refurbishments. there are other sources of funding.

Refurbish the houses (maybe even setting local building apprenticeship scheme to do the work) then either sell the houses onto local people or part rent part buy schemes to service the outstanding loans.

The house sales could have conditions covering minimum length of time before houses could be sold, etc. the trust could also vett who could buy the houses in the first place, ensuring local people get a chance to own their own homes.

The above is a bit of dream, it’s not a pipe dream, it could be achievable with a certain amount of will and flexibility , and could be an exemplar model for future housing regeneration in Kensington and elsewhere the city?

If it did happen and did succeed imagine the publicity the kudos the warm feeling it would create for all concerned including yourselves. Good publicity

The nightmare scenario is the houses remain empty for several more years, grow increasingly more derelict, 2008 comes and goes, no income from them, so the first thing visitors see coming down one of the major arterial routes into the city just after the regeneration sign is a shabby row of Victorian terraced house going up in smoke? Eventually the land is cleared and we get another row of anonymous design/build apartments out of the price range of the locals.

Regards

Stephen Faragher

The Winners and Losers of the Floating Voter Challenge

Well I’m afraid to say it was a bit of a one horse race.

The winner was  Baldock a dark haired filly by thee furlongs, the two outsiders, Marbrow and Doran are both still running. and may be for some time to come…the council have delivered the letters to all the houses and put up flimsy looking signs but signs none the less. 

They are also sending out officers at regular intervals to check for dumping.

So I will be keeping you all informed on how this all pans out

“The Squatting Voter Challenge” there’s no smoke without Bellway

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6574597.stm

The place is going up in flames……

A row of bueautiful houses backing onto a victorian park left to rack and ruin… for years and years.. now the local young people are burning them cause they’re board…..yes it can only be Kensington.

The squatting voter challenge is this C7 the local RLS Hosuing Association who own a fair number of these houses wishes to sell these houses for a nominal fee to local people who could then borrow the money to have them refurbished.

It would work like this, these houses must have a market value of at elast £140,000, so even f they were sold for £10,000, and I spent £50,000 refurbing, then there would still be £80,000 worth of equity. The Ecology Buildign society of which I am a member will and do lend on this type of property.

Tom (McGuire) Imagine the good publicity……I think it’s what you call a “win win situation”.. The RLS get eyesores off their hands, the place looks better (after all it is one fo the major routes into the city) great publicity, tenants become owners, foot on the property ladder etc etc etc etc. and Bellway only make slightly less profit than they would have done…..

Anyone else interested let me know. I reckon if I can find another ten people then maybe we can crack this one, i.

Or have the RLS sold them on already to Bellway, anyone knwo how to do a masonic handshake?

Flaoting Voter Challenge “More Exciting than the Grand National”-but we might have a winner

Yes we might have a winner, got an email off Louise Baldock (Labour) and also someone from Liverpool City Council, apparently acting on Louise’s phone calls,  tomorrow they are sending section 46 letters out (telling poeple it’s an offence to dump or put your rubbish out on the wrong day), checking any dumped rubbish for ID info and “if they can afford it” putting signs up telling people not to dump on pain of transportation to Australia……

I will be offering any council operatives a cup of tea and a hob nob if I come across them, although if they realise I am the cause of them having to sieve through bags of rubbish…..

Who is winning “the Floating Voter Challenge”

Well so far I’ve had an email from Louise Baldock, but nothing from Frank Doran or Richard Marbrow. She is going up a tier in the cleansing department  to see if this Officer can sort it out, so when I know more you will be the first to know.

Councillors arent the only ones who can pass motions in Liverpool

 A couple of months ago it was reported that several Liverpool City Officers had used special powers (no they are not the X-Men) to give themselves an £18,000 shelter over their cars in staff car park at the back of the Municipal Building.

This was all done on the pretext that some people who had used the car park had gotten bird crap on the cars and were suing the council for damages. So in order to save the council money they decided to spend the money on the shelter.

The first thing that occurred to me was if the car park is  predominently by high ranking council officials, were they the ones who were suing the council (get on the phone to Franz Kafka for god’s sake).

The other thought that went through my mind was how can Liveprool City Council be held laible for actions of wild birds.

Does this now mean that if I park my car outside of your house and a bird craps on it you are then have to pay me damages?

This all sound really fishy.

If the officers in question had just come clean and said “we dont want birds crapping on our cars, can we have a shelter…er…. please?” then this whole thing would not be so annoying, but to dress it up as being done for the benefit of the poor visitors who use the car park seems a bit far fetched to say the least.

So under the freedom of information act I written and asked them for a few details (copy of letter sent)

5^th April 2007

Dear Sir

I am making a request under the freedom of information act about the £18,000 spent on the cover for the car park at the rear of the municipal car park.I am obviously asking questions based on the reports in the media t the time so wome of the questions are to either confirm deny or clarify these reports.

1.       It was reported that council officers took the decision to build the cover without any consultation or dialogue with councillors; if this was so what section of local government law did they invoke to mandate them to make the decision?

2.       It was reported that the decision to spend the money was made because there had been claims against the council for damage to cars in the car park by pigeon droppings. The inference in the media was that a large number of claims had been levelled at the council, which seems odd given the car park is a private one.

3.       Can you inform me as to whether  this was the case and how many claims were made, who made the claims and for how much the claims were, and whether they were settled out of or in court. I would also like to know if any of these claimants were council employees.

4.       I would like to know whether there were any signs erected in the car park disclaiming any damage caused to vehicles not being the responsibility of the owners of the car park, like in many public and private car parks. If signs were present what was the text on these signs?

5.       Finally if the council did bow to the threat or actual law suit for damages, what part of civil law or precedent would accommodate liability being prescribed against a local authority for the actions of wild birds defecating. If it is proximity to a building then presumably if I was walking down Whitechapel walking past Rex Makin’s Office and a passing feral pigeon decides to crap on me I could sue Mr Makin for the dry cleaning bill and the psychological damage done to me?I have already asked these questions by email but have not had any response.

I would expect a response within seven days or I will be forwarding this letter and a covering letter to the local authority ombudsman.

Yours Sincerley 

Have I got too much time on my hands or what?

I’ve had an acknowledgement but no reply yet, I’ll keep you informed