Councils waste millions on "topple tests" for gravestones

Tonight's Panorama features a report by Quentin Letts on health and safety May Contain Nuts. The theme of the documentary seems to be that amidst a plethora of absurd and onerous box ticking that constrain us going about our daily lives there has been a lack of focus on areas of genuinely high risk - such as construction sites.

The report includes the claim that Councils have wasted millions on "topple test" for gravestones. If the Council thinks it made fall over they put in wooden stakes - but this makes the situation more rather than less dangerous. Mavis Fields says the topple tests by Bassetlaw Council damaged the grave of her first husband and adds: "This cemetary is in a more dangerous state with all the stakes stuck out for people to topple over than it was." 

Councils contract out lifeguard duty to RNLI

The BBC reports that two Labour councils, Sunderland and South Tyneside, will each save around £10,000 a year by contracting out lifeguard duty to a charity. From this summer RNLI will patrol Sandhaven in South Tyneside and Seaburn and Roker beaches in Sunderland.

The RNLI are "delighted." I suspect that as well as being cheaper they will also do a better job.

Conservative-led Newport Council in dispute with local cabbies

Taxi drivers are among the most staunch Conservative supporters. London cabbies had an important role in securing the election of Boris Johnson as Mayor of London last year - even giving out receipts including a Back Boris message.

But Newport Council, a Conservative led authority with Lib Dem support is unfortunately in dispute with its local taxi drivers. This is because they are changing the rules on the age of vehicle in a move that threatens to put 60% of the city's taxi drivers out of business. The Council has ruled that private hire vehicles should be no older than eight years and Hackney carriages no older than 10 years as of August 1 2010.

The Council cite health and safety. Cabbies says it is to "spruce up" Newport for the Ryder Cup. Either way it sounds a pretty unfortunate move at a time of recession. Shouldn't this be a time when Councils are looking to relax these regulations rather than tighten them?

Localism and the Fire Brigade

Cllr David Burbage, leader of Windsor & Maidenhead Council says that localism should be extended to the Fire Brigade.

Berkshire, recently having been joined by Cheshire in having a unitary flavour, still has a few remnants of its old County Council.

One of these is the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service. It is constituted with 25 Members from our 6 unitary authorities who, as you might expect, occasionally take a parochial geographic view of the world rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

It probably came as a surprise to my (Liberal Democrat) predecessor then, when Berkshire’s Royal Fire Service chose to close Windsor Fire Station because a computer model had identified a shortfall in theoretical cover in another part of the county.

I will spare readers the torment of explaining the niceties of an Integrated Risk Management Plan, but I spent a full day in the High Court (Royal Courts of Justice) last week exploring just such detail before a judge.

Nobody (outside of our representatives) appeared to worry too much that there is an important castle in Windsor, and it’s caught fire before, and that it’s a on-the-world-stage royal residence of some significance. Oh, and we also have one of the most popular tourist destinations in Legoland. And a vibrant night time economy. No, the evidence on the ground was outweighed by the computer software model, using maps and population to achieve a specific goal of optimising residential fire coverage for some new houses, being built elsewhere.

At this point it is fair to mention that the authority was operating under Government guidance (all hail to Government guidance) to produce the “right” answer.

Government guidance produces, from that software sausage machine, some “professional advice” which becomes “the best option” which becomes “the only logical choice to save lives”.

Cambridgeshire and the paper boys: Council leader replies

Earlier this week Cambridgeshire Council was in a media firestorm over using surveillance powers to investigate paper boys. Here the Council leader Cllr Jill Tuck responds to her critics.

Unfortunately the media hysteria over RIPA masks what it is actually there to do - protect the right to privacy of the individual. RIPA is not an anti-terrorism law as the media constantly state.

At Cambridgeshire County Council, we only use RIPA when it is absolutely necessary in the course of investigations where we know the law has been broken. In many cases, such as the one last week, observation work by our officers is the only way of gathering evidence, and RIPA has to be used so that the evidence is admissible in court. We only took action in this case through the courts as a last resort.

In this case, the shopkeepers had been given countless opportunities to comply with the law on child employment, but didn't. We take our child welfare and safety responsibilities very seriously at Cambridgeshire CC, which is why we work with people who employ youngsters to make sure they
follow the rules so that everyone is protected.

Hampshire Council ban lollipop man's tinsel

Children in Southampton are in tears. Conservative-run Hampshire Council have banned a lollipop man from sticking tinsel to the top of his Stop sign. This sounds to me like an example of a health and safety "risk assessment" where any sense of proportion or common sense has been abandoned. But more to the point is that Hampshire Council leader Cllr Ken Thornber seems to suspect the same thing. He tells the Daily Express:

"It's nice to see that the lollipop man is trying to spread a little bit of Christmas cheer. They do such a vital job and it would be a shame if they could not have some festive fun.

"While I do not know the full details of this matter and I haven't seen the stick I do know there are guidelines to ensure the safety of children using the crossings as well as the safety of motorists and our school crossing patrol staff.

"Any rules and dress codes are about ensuring the safety of children and they are there for legal and insurance reasons, but I'd want to be sure officers were not being over-zealous in their interpretation and to see if a balance can be struck between festive fun and road safety."

So will Cllr Thornber order a reprieve in this season of goodwill? I am emailing him to ask for an update.

Tory council using anti terrior law to spy on paper boys with the wrong permits

Conservative controlled Cambridgeshire County Council has, reports the Daily Mail "sent undercover council officers to lurk outside a Spar in the village of Melbourn and take notes on the movements of the boys. The evidence was used in a criminal prosecution of the shop's owners for employing five of the boys without the correct documentation." They used powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act that are intended to deal with terrorism. The most astonishing hostility to the enterprise culture from a Conservative Council.

I am now going to email the Council leader Cllr Jill Tuck to ask her for her comments.

Labour-run Nottingham Council bans Shetland ponies from Cinderella pantomime

Labour-run Nottingham Council has banned the use of Shetland ponies in a new production  of Cinderella. As Nottingham Council own the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, where the performance is being held, they have the power to impose the ban. Instead the Fairy Godmother will enter in a carriage pulled by two cast members wearing horses heads. Not quite the same, it it?

The Council bans live animals performing in all Council-run premises citing animal welfare and health and safety. But the ponies were on stage at the privately owned Nottingham Playhouse Theatre two years ago without evidence of either being breached.

Nick Thomas, the chairman of Qdos, Europe's largest pantomime producer, which runs the show, said:

"The theatre is run by Nottingham City Council and they don't like live animals in the theatre. We have ponies all over the place in other parts of the country. I personally don't like to see Cinderella without ponies but it is just something we have to deal with."

Gosport Council bans doormats

The Daily Telegraph reports that Lib Dem-run Gosport Council is banning doormats on health and safety grounds. Intriguingly a Council spokesman is quoted justifying the decision. But Cllr Keith Gill, the Lib Dem councillor in charge of housing, attacks it.

Who is in charge of the clattering train? If Cllr Gill thinks it was a mistake why hasn't the order by rescinded, apologies issued, the relevant housing officer sacked, etc? Why is the Council still going ahead with prohibition and the spokesman still defending it? This sounds like a Council where the officers are running affairs, very badly, while the councillors notionally in authority offer an impotent running commentary.

Health & Safety, even RoSPA speak out

We have constant experience from our daily lives, as well as the media, of excessive restrictiveness due to supposed "health and safety concerns." Often those responsible for measures so disproportionate as to be absurd are Councils. Yes, I'm afraid, even Conservative Councils. But there was a message of hope in Saturday's Telegraph: "Tom Mullarkey, the chief executive of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, insisted that individuals must retain the right to take risks so long as they do not injure others."

If someone who can hardly be portrayed as indifferent to the importance of preventing accidents is prepared to speak out, isn't it time that councillors stopped cravenly acquiescing to this bureaucratic madness? Often Council officers seem to think stopping something, or spending some vast sum of money, is justified if there is any risk at all. No matter how small the risk. No matter how theoretical the supposed risk is.

Three years ago Michael Gove, now Shadow Children's Secretary, presented a Channel 5 documentary which looked at:

"An increasing risk-avoidance culture in Britain, which is stifling activities and becoming absurd. Looks at how conkers have been deemed dangerous and children banned from playing them, how some hospitals ban home-made food, and how 'Health and Safety' issues and fear of litigation have led to teachers restricting sports and playground games and not doing school trips. Also looks at the effect of compensation culture and at how taking away all elements of risk or pushing at boundaries is actually bad for children."

I hope he remembers that in Government. But in the meantime those of us in power locally should take heart from Tom Mullarkey and insist on a sense of proportion.