Katia
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Think I feel concern for the binmen – what used to be a seemingly straightforward task must be turning into an absolute kerfuffle.
Today I was at my Gran’s and watched the ” refuse disposal operative ” working both sides of the road by himself – even driving.
Very impressed in fairness, he took the time to look for numbers and took the boxes back where they were from.
All I can say is he wears glasses – he works really conscientiously and is a credit to the council.
Well done Sir.Reading The Leader story today and comparing it with similar situations reported previously in areas that already have these patrols begs the question, is anybody actually monitoring the numbers of dog fouling vs litter (especially cigarette stubs) “fines” to follow whether Wrexham will follow other places where the litter is the main driver NOT the dog fouling.
Looking at an FOI request from a different council it isn’t immediately obvious whether people actually paid their fines or not. It would appear the easiest way to end this trial is for everybody in Wrexham not to pay their fines.Accepting an oppressive ideology from politicians using uniformed enforcement with zero tolerance mandates tends not to have a happy outcome – certainly within many of our aging relatives lifetimes.
Let us not forget.Retailers may well need to look again at their way of doing business to successfully move forwards given the increasing popularity of shopping online.
In addition to shopkeepers one other group that could do with revising their business model particularly given their income from town centres is reducing by the week are councils themselves
With the average band D council tax for Wales for 2016-17 at £1,374. This includes £1,127 for county councils, £216 for police and £30 for community councils. Plus remember that £1 in every £5 is purely towards funding pensions not services – the whole system needs overhauling.
We are being charged too much for local councils, Welsh Assembly etc as individuals.Then on top of this to charge so many thousands of pounds for retail space in the town AND expect to make money from customers parking etc just isn’t viable. Thats before frightening away shoppers with £80 fines for minor littering etc.
Before any business owner in the town starts making any money for themselves they have to put too much time and effort into paying for their overheads. If the burden could be reduced substantially it may encourage more of those with an entrepreneurial spirit to start trading in the town and fill up empty retail space.If the tax burden was moved from local shops etc to be replaced with a levy on internet sales it may level the trading proposition – but it will never happen. For example I recently needed some small batteries for a remote control £2.99 each in Maplins – £1.33 for 10 with free postage on Amazon. Is there possibly something anybody can think of that allows Amazon to still make a profit ?
Do we really want Wrexham to follow the principle of so many small towns in USA where they have a compact Historic Downtown Shopping Attraction consisting of one small street with a little market attached surrounded by housing. I can see it coming, focused on High Street from the Wynnstay to Church Street including the market and leading to Bank Street one end down to the Nags Head at the other – with Eagles Meadow attached. Everything else abandoned, derelict and plump with the empty promise of unwanted town centre apartments. Eventually becoming a dormitory for commuters to Liverpool, Manchester & Chester.
[quote quote=112251]
All of the major nationals who would want the bigger units in Henblas Street have masses if data on footfall, socio economic information etc on which to base their shop developments. Using this type of data they are generally able to predict what 80% of the turnover of any shop should be across a 12 month period. They have decamped because the computer statistic show it is cheaper to bail out of the area than to run a loss making business.
………
People need to stop using the Council as a battering ram for the down turn in retailing in Wrexham – the rates are only one element of the total problem. Rates will not have sufficient impact to get retailers to change sufficient to meet the social changes that are occurring in society.
[/quote]Agree generally but would add a comment that major national retailers are not always business paragons – they often make enormous errors of judgement, fail to grasp trends or are plain clueless. They often leave worthwhile niches unfilled and lack local knowledge – which is where savvy independents can make a very good living or at least be masters of their own destiny – to a point.
One example could perhaps be Virgin Travel not having a desk in Debenhams Wrexham because commercial gurus judge Wrexham people to be unlikely to travel to USA/Caribbean in sufficient numbers to achieve target – unlike Chester, Manchester and Liverpool.
Possibly Delmar World Travel will disagree with them seeing as they have been trading since 1964.When major nationals up sticks it may not be a reflection on the town – could just be their own demise – eg Phones4u.
Few of us that saw Alunh speaking very well on BBC Wales News the other week making the point that lowering his cost to do business can only help will disagree with him.
Wrexham like many other small market towns is simply still charging too much to do business – regardless of how the money is collected and distributed. The council itself must change their view that town centre retailing is a cash cow.
A lady from Ruthin and Denbighshire Council feature in this fact laden Daily Mail piece.
Are we to add to confetti plan that wardens deliberately leave slips in cashpoints to fine anybody that drops them on floor, fines for cherry stones dropped onto pavement, and most alarming, a fine for a non-smoker stepping on a cigarette butt and picking it from his shoe ?
Daave63 possibly may not be entirely serious but if Secretary Of State For Environment, Food & Rural Affairs Liz Truss succeeds in raising the fines from £80 to possible £150 the council could be onto even more of a windfall – so long as they don’t lose money instead like some of the other councils in the article – on the hook for payments for tickets but not receiving any money from unpaid fines!Credit where its due to Mr Critchley at Eagles Meadow, at least he won’t be reading any such stories about his shoppers over his cornflakes.
Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990 Section 87 re: Offence of leaving litter.
Note the wording – leaving litter. This must be why if somebody retrieves their litter when challenged there should be no offence ?Note also from the Vale Of Glamorgan trial pdf note the contrasting emphasis of litter penalties compared to dog fouling.
6. XFOR needed to issue a minimum of 50 FPNs per week, in order to support their business model. This resulted in them targeting the most prevalent and easy to detect offences of ‘smoking related’ litter. Whilst assurances were given by XFOR’s senior management that once their officers had reached the minimum number of FPN’s they were available to carry any patrols as directed by the Council, there remained a disproportionate focus on smoking related litter in high footfall areas such as town centres, Llandough Hospital car park and retail parks.
During the trial the actual VPNs issued were Litter 1655 ( earning £89716 ) vs Dog Fouling 10 ( earning £450 ).
It seems these “wardens” do not have the power to detain people, and their training guidelines typically suggest they should refrain from chasing people but should inform them efforts will be made to trace them.
It could be having an actual human doing this job is an interim measure, why risk injury catching litter bugs when all they are doing is monitoring and obtaining video evidence. In Dubai for instance this is carried out by remote operated drones.
At this point maybe we should consider whether we really should go down the path of Orwellian monitoring and prosecution – with zero tolerance thrown in. All we need to do is combine with artificial intelligence to be on the brink of T1000s stomping along Henblas Street terminating us for next to nothing.Typical how the announcement of the proposed Circuit Of Wales MotoGp “difficulties” were announced yesterday so nobody in opposition could challenge Labour about the money thats been “invested”.
Vote for Labour – no.
Vote for Plaid – no.
Vote for Liberals – {shrug} no.Vote for Conservatives – oh go on then, remember to freeze Council Tax mind.
Print media is dying or so they say.
The Independent moving online only is one recent example.
May be more of a generational issue with local papers. I don’t think most people under 30 really care about reporting of minor court cases etc, whereas granny would devour them, same with printed family announcements, births, deaths, marriages – who does that anymore ?
One thing that used to be popular was buying the local paper for the cars, houses on sale, or the football coverage.
All online now.Another point, making readers click to answer questions like the Daily Post isn’t a long term solution, its very annoying, and quicker to google the headline instead, even my grandad has sussed that out.
How will they make money ? No clue.[quote quote=109068]Wrexham Council have contracted Kingdom Security , a St Helens based company to issue fixed penalty tickets on their behalf to those caught leaving litter or not cleaning up after their dog. Another area of privatisation, the company are advertising jobs in Wrexham to undertake the task. If there is a profit in it for Kingdom one would have thought there would have been a bigger profit if the Council did the job themselves. Wonder what percentage of each fixed penalty the Council will see?
[/quote]If anybody has been watching The Inspectors Are Coming on ITV ( some episodes remain available on ITV Hub ) they will be familiar with some of the process.
Some private firms operate on the basis that the council pays around £42 to £50 to the private firm for every correctly issued ticket regardless of whether ultimately payment is received from the person to whom the ticket is issued.
One council, Basildon cancelled their contract with the private operator as they actually made a material loss.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-21085634Some private operators business model hopes to achieve a success rate of over 50%.
There are instances of people successfully claiming they did not throw away their cigarette, but rather left it on the pavement outside a premises whilst visiting and collected it promptly afterwards when challenged. Thus no litter offence committed.
Challenging penalty notices in court takes up a considerable amount of an officers time so perhaps it is hoped appeals will be limited.There are plenty of pdfs available online from councils regarding similar proposals.
Those expecting dog fouling penalties to be on an equal level to litter penalties may be disappointed !
Maybe Wrexham.com could find out if there are plans to expand the role of the “wardens” to cover such things as selling cars at the side of the road, working on cars in the street, sandwich boards outside shops, graffiti, etc ?
http://web.gravesham.gov.uk/democracy/documents/s25976/Report.pdf
http://democracy.brent.gov.uk/documents/s38575/litter-patrols.pdf
http://web.gravesham.gov.uk/democracy/documents/s25976/Report.pdf
http://committeedmz.dartford.gov.uk/documents/s51122/Litter%20Enforcement%20Report.pdf?txtonly=1
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/may/14/litter-law-enforcers-blaenau-gwent
