“I spent 6 HOURS tidying up a hedge overhanging a pavement near my home – I wanted to help but was branded a ‘criminal’”, the Sun reports.
A MAN has been branded a “criminal” after spending six hours tidying up an overhanging hedge to help locals.
Adam Myers, 22, thought he was carrying out a simple act of kindness when he chopped back grass verges on a stretch of 40mph road in the sleepy village of Broughton Moor, Cumbria.
The young lad, who has autism, jumped at the chance to fix-up the area after residents expressed concern online about walkers’ safety.
Around 10 minutes after the the chaotic bushes were strimmed and the weeds were ripped up, local cops received reports of “criminal damage”.
Adam had shared before and after pictures of his work on Facebook before being hit with backlash from the parish council.
A member of the community group commented on Adam’s post telling him he had broken the law and carried out an act of criminal damage.
The report of the incident in the Sun, quoted above, refers to a “member of the community group” reporting Adam Myers for criminal damage. However other accounts, such as the Telegraph‘s, say that the person who reported Mr Myers for criminal damage was actually a member of the parish council.
That would explain the sequel to this tale. According to the Telegraph link above,
An entire parish council has resigned after a man was reported to the police for criminal damage for clearing a roadside pavement of weeds, stinging nettles and brambles.
All seven members of the Broughton Moor parish council near Cockermouth, Cumbria, have quit following a backlash to news that Adam Myers, 22, who has autism, was reported for strimming grass verges and hedges near his home in the village.
They did not leave without a last petulant gesture:
In a statement posted on the parish council website said “As of June 20, and following an orchestrated campaign of bullying and abuse, both online and in person, against the members of the parish council and the clerk, Broughton Moor no longer has a parish council.
“All future plans for improvements for the village have been cancelled and the community centre has been closed.
If the reactions from citizens of Broughton Moor quoted by the Telegraph are typical, the now former councillors in question will not be missed. But to be fair to them – I always try to be fair to parish councillors, because the ones I know do a vast amount of work for either a tiny allowance or no money at all – there is a potential reason to object to individuals cutting hedges. The Sun may have missed that the person threatening to dob Adam Myers in was a parish councillor, but their account did include a little panel on “the rules” for cutting hedges, which said,
Under Section 1 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, it’s an offence to intentionally damage or destroy a wild bird’s nest while it is being built or in use.
It does not say that was the reason the parish councillor or councillors objected to Adam Myers trimming roadside hedges himself; it just says that it could have been. But for that defence to work, it would have to be the case that the council lovingly inspected every hedge for birds’ nests before trimming them. Now, I have not had much chance to observe how the local councils in the vicinity of Cockermouth go about trimming hedges – though I know of a Samizdata reader who has – but I know how they do it in Essex. When the council gets round to it, which is not often, they send a vehicle equipped with a robot arm tipped by three spinning bladed wheels, whose passage instantly reduces any projecting branches of the hedge to dust. Any eggs or baby birds slumbering in their little home also get the scythed chariot treatment. The point is that someone such as Adam Myers – or such as I, since, dear readers, inspired by his example I have gone forth and done some hedgecrime myself – who laboriously snips the hedge branch by branch is infinitely more likely to see and avoid a nest than the man driving Boudicca’s chariot while wearing council-mandated goggles and ear-muffs.
So, all in all, it looks to me as if the ex-members of Broughton Moor Parish Council were annoyed at this young man for showing them up.
I don’t think it’s a matter of showing them up. It’s lese-majeste. Intruding on their preserve. A far more serious offence.
Publish their names and addresses, if you can.
They made the new rules, we’ll see how they like them. Leftists twats.
If you let one citizen do some unassigned task towards beautifying the city, soon others will do something similar, and before you know it, there is less work to assign to the properly unionized government employees.
And we cannot have that.
bobby refers to an early stage in the process. Later on the employees don’t care because they’re paid whether they work or not, so doing their work isn’t going to cost them their job.
Mrs Moore’s ancient godfather, a highly eccentric inhabitant of San Francisco, used to garden the large central reservation in the street outside his home. He had a garage full of gardening tools even though he had no garden of his own. Nobody minded. Which was only fair as he’d planted most of the things he was pruning.
The section 1 might also serve as a traffic-calming measure, in not-so-sleepy locations, where pedestrians then have to share the road with motorists.
I had this “bird’s nest” stuff when I had to have the eves on one side of my semi detached house (the other side, of course, not having an edge) repaired – cement was falling off, the roof (badly built in the first place – no runners under the beams) was in danger of falling apart, and I got threats about “bird’s nests” from local busybodies – and the “bird’s nests” did not even exist (there were none).
This young man was trying to help people – and got threats of being criminally charged in response for his good work.
And people wonder why people do not bother with their local area – or with their own homes.
There are endless “laws” and endless busybodies (who do nothing but threaten their neighbours) to use these “laws” against anyone who tries to do anything good.
Welcome to modern Britain.
Broughton Moor “no longer has a parish council” and the clerk (a paid official – they are not elected) has “resigned”.
Right – then there should be no Council Tax Precept (the Precept is that part of a Council Tax that pays for Parish Council – they do not collect tax themselves, they get a share of the Council Tax that a higher level council collects, and, at least in this area, how big the “Precept” is, is decided by the Parish Council) in Broughton Moor, after all it “no longer has a parish council” and the clerk has “resigned” – which means that he does not have to paid.
Unless “no longer has a parish council” and “resigned” now have some new meaning.
A bit like “I take responsibility” for the worst election defeat in 200 years leaves the same man still leader of a political party – making jokes (at the expense of a betrayed Prime Minister) in the House of Commons and getting a good reception from all sides of the House (if someone has a good cross party reception – this is a very bad sign, the same way that if a proposed Bill has “all party support” it is almost certainly a dreadful measure).
The person who said, only a few months ago, in the House of Commons “I state, categorically, that the Covid vaccines are safe”.
Lie in the House of Commons, about a matter of life and death, and you become very popular with the establishment.
Lie in the House of Commons, about a matter of life and death, and you become very popular with the establishment.
FWIW I am an avid reader of Spiked finding much of interest interspersed with high comedy whenever Ann Furedi (the world’s greatest troller? I wish it was so) sharpens her pencil and promptly impales her finger. However I refuse to donate a brass farthing to support them purely on account of Fraser Myers’ unforgivable hatchet piece on Andrew Bridgen.
(I similarly keep my wallet tightly closed in respect of TakiMag. Despite all the laughs, the unspeakable truths calmly presented by Steve Sailor and most of all the humanity and beautiful writing of Theodore Dalrymple there is only so much antisemitism I can stomach).
’…an orchestrated campaign of bullying and abuse, both online and in person…’
I’m not a fan of violence, but I can’t help but hope the one who reported the lad got his bullying in person, by way of a good hard punch in the nose!
“It does not say that was the reason the parish councillor or councillors objected to Adam Myers trimming roadside hedges himself; it just says that it could have been. But for that defence to work, it would have to be the case that the council lovingly inspected every hedge for birds’ nests before trimming them.”
No, it wouldn’t. It would only have to be the case that the council doesn’t cut the hedges during the nesting season, typically from April to August. That’s how it was done in the village where I used to live. The only exceptions were where hedges were growing out over a road and causing a traffic hazard.
“Now, I have not had much chance to observe how the local councils in the vicinity of Cockermouth go about trimming hedges – though I know of a Samizdata reader who has – but I know how they do it in Essex. When the council gets round to it, which is not often, they send a vehicle equipped with a robot arm tipped by three spinning bladed wheels, whose passage instantly reduces any projecting branches of the hedge to dust.”
And did they do it in the nesting season?
John: one of things about the antisemitism at Taki’s Mag is that a lot of it is gratuitous, thrown into some articles as an aside or in comparison to something where there is no comparison.
An example is this from David Cole several months ago: “The murder of the Austrian crown prince could not be ignored, but the slaughter of the next four years reminds me of the overreaction by the Israelis who are yelling foul while murdering more than 20,000 Gazan innocents.”
Maintenance of roadside ditches and hedges is the responsibility of the landowner, not the parish council unless they happen to own the land in question.
Maintenance of verges is the responsibility of the highway authority i.e. the county council but they don’t have to maintain it as a lawn.
The hedge/verge cutting therefore has nothing to do with the parish council except that they might ask the highway authority to issue an enforcement notice.
Sometimes a highway authority will send a hedgecutter to trim an overgrown hedge, but that will be out of nesting season.
Sounds to me like there are personal disputes going on.
If this was all about observing the nesting season the parish council had every opportunity to come out and say so.
They didn’t ergo it wasn’t. Cue hissy fits.
There’s a specific exemption in the hedge cutting rules that allows it during bird nesting season if its for the purpose of allowing public access on a public footpath or right of way:
6.—(1) The cutting and trimming of an important hedgerow is prohibited during the period beginning with 1st March in any year and ending on 31st August in that year, inclusive of those dates, except in the circumstances described in paragraphs (2) and (3).
(2) The circumstances described in this paragraph are where the cutting or trimming is of an important hedgerow which—
(a)overhangs a highway, road or footpath over which there is a public or private right of way and the overhanging hedgerow obstructs the passage of, or is a danger to users
So the usual busybody suspects (who are almost always IME retired former State employees) were completely wrong about any offence being committed, and the lad was entirely within the law to cut the hedge back to allow the public to safely pass along a public footpath. The councillors rightly got the public shellacking they deserved. Hopefully some of it was a vocal and pointed face to face confrontation detailing out what a joyless bunch of c*nts they were.
Anyone with half a brain should know it is not about laws/right/wrong, but about presentation, i.e. how does this look to a casual observer?
‘Self important local oaf muscling autistic guy.’
Reaction; resign in a huff and run away from the bad publicity claiming it’s everyone else’s fault.
Local bumbling politics at work, the country over.
This sort of reaction from various authorities isn’t confined to overgrown hedges and is quite widespread. This book-
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guerrilla-Gardening-Handbook-without-Boundaries/dp/0747590818/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=17W6QDKQFCGUZ&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.n643XC2kd-EwgvqzNyr6R7uVHH2HCTvZjiDP7gmjXipbTIYRAP4C01IvcyNmaSQJuydDftwmAtVcDVdNIJfJ_j7NdHlcbzEZMbzss72490UZK0JnoQMkkGe-M-Zzk2wlWll_3PrZ_-8dJrP_-uPJsDSInZiV_EpuS5M1UUfLVLEnjKnPCQyPfve4P2bilhJXqDL41X94rVefeIKlFDjD5A.u3sgxFwNBBzWiYrunMGEigwsAfss1XCPaeBn32-wZak&dib_tag=se&keywords=guerilla+gardening+book&qid=1721572903&s=books&sprefix=guerilla+gardening%2Caps%2C99&sr=1-1-catcorr
lists quite a few cases where people have worked hard to beautify their local area and got grief for it. Another thing that often happens is that a group of volunteers will go through more official channels and offer to clean up a piece of waste ground and get blocked at every turn, usually on the grounds of health and safety. So what they do instead is build a nice community garden on said wasteland and then by the time the local authority find out about it it’s already finished and they can’t do anything about it without looking like c*nts
I think it’s a bit unfair to assume the other parish councillors are complicit in this. After the idiot reported this guy to the cops and it got picked up by the press, they probably just thought: I’m not being paid to receive this abuse, so screw you guys, I’m going home. In some villages, it’s kind of a (minor) prestige thing to be on the parish council, but as Natalie says, a lot of them are just trying to be helpful.
P.S. Good job Adam Myers.
Thank you Jim – thank you for pointing out that the rules are NOT what the busybodies claim they are.
Remember we live in a country where the authorities (including Parliament) believe the correct response to I…… terrorist attacks is to impose more regulations on venues – “missing the point” does not even start to cover this.
By the way – it will soon be illegal to describe the terrorist attacks as I……, even though that is what the attackers say they are.
There was not very much Freedom of Speech under the old Parliament – the new one is likely to get rid of what Freedom of Speech that still remains.
“There has been a bombing at a music venue, many people have been killed or maimed” – “that is disgusting, what terrible people the owners of the venue are, they should have had…..”
The bombers and the cause they served – will not be mentioned, because if people mention such things it will be those people who will be punished.
I don’t know how relevant it is that hedge trimmer guy is autistic. The condition varies very widely in its severity. Some autistic people are seriously dysfunctional, I have a nephew who is somewhere in the middle of the scale, he certainly has his problems but is moderately high functioning. Others you wouldn’t know that they were autistic if you met them but you would probably think that they were a bit odd.
Paul:
I think the headlines would be “Loud popping sounds at music venue, some people fall down.” So much more reassuring.
So it amounts to this. This bloke decided on his own judgement that the hedges needed to be cut and went and did it, and a parish councillor posted on Facebook or something that really he shouldn’t have done that. And then some busybody reported him to the police, who said forget it this is nothing to do with us. And then a group of villagers sent very unpleasant messages to the parish councillors (we know people do this, my wife has been horrified at the grossly rude and anti-social messages posted on our neighbourhood Facebook group). And then the parish councillors said “You know what, we do this job unpaid out of the goodness of our hearts and because somebody has to do it and none of you idle fuckers will. And if you’re going to be disgustingly rude to us we’re not doing it any more, so do it your fucking selves.”
I know where my sympathies lie. Possibly because I’ve been in a very similar position 🙂
It’s all about control and power with the sort of deviant twits that go for these jobs. They want power and authority over others, and delight in exerting whatever they can get.
This is exactly what happens in homeowners associations, here in the US… The precise wrong sorts of human beings are attracted to these positions, and they metastasize within organizations as though they were the cancer cells they mimic so well.
The key issue with things like this is that you must answer the question of “Does this individual want the job…?”, and if the answer is “Yes, very much…”, then the follow-on is that they’re almost certainly unsuited to having it.
Personally, I think that we’ve almost consciously set things up to get the wrong people put in charge of governance. For one thing, the popularity contests we call elections are full of ego-boos for the usual run of sycophantic megalomaniac types that love participating in such things. Then, the way they’re treated…? Surrounded by hordes of yes-men, egos stroked, constantly hearing how wonderful they are? Precisely the wrong thing to do with these personality types; it almost ensures factual productive insanity on their parts.
I noticed this about flag-rank officers in the US Army; most of them are such egotists and held in such awe by the lower-ranking sorts that it’s not even funny. Very few of them actually retain any sense at all that they’re not some sort of minor god-like figure, imbued with infallibility and omniscience. If you want a good answer for why so many of our current lot of generals and admirals are so bad, look at how they’re selected, trained, and conditioned. They get used to having their every whim catered to, by the horde of sycophantic fellatrix types they wind up surrounded by… It’s a rare figure that actually retains any objectivity in that environment. Most don’t manage it.
And, when you consider how we treat congressmen, senators, and others… Business executives? It’s a wonder any of them retain even a slight semblance of sanity.
We’re doing this wrong. I think there ought to be a better way to do it, and one that doesn’t involve catering to the mental illness that most of these sorts have. I mean, it’s useful as hell to have the odd sociopath and even an occasional outright functional psychopath around, but to make them unquestioned “maximum leaders”? WTF are we thinking…?
Every one of these assholes ought to have a team surrounding them, where there are people who aren’t besotted with their wonderfulness, and those people ought to be concerned with keeping their “genius” under control, and playing mahout-with-the-aṅkuśa when things go all pear-shaped around said “figure of genius”. You have to view these people as being useful tools that need controlling and monitoring, not as infallible guides and leaders.
Honestly, I view the ability to lead at these levels as a bit of a mental illness, a useful one, but one that is a clear sign you don’t want these egotistical self-centered shitbags in complete charge. They have their uses, but… Man, you’d better keep an eye on them, and ensure that they don’t go out of control. The mahout thing ain’t no joke; someone should have been putting the ol’ aṅkuśa into the back of Adolf’s head about the time he really started going off the reservation… Same with the rest: How much better would the world be, had someone had the wit and wisdom to do the same for Napoleon, before he effectively depopulated metropolitan France seeking empire? I mean, he was a mostly positive figure, at one point… Which is where someone should have said, emphatically, “Yeah… About drafting all these kids and taking on the rest of Europe… Not happening, Mr. Bonaparte…”
You have to look at these figures as being exactly what they are: Useful tools to have around, and once they lose their edge and effect…? Fire their asses. Preferably, out of a cannon.
You could say the same for a lot of business executives, at all levels.
The way I would use to put people in positions of authority like mayor and city council would be just random draws of citizens, just like we do with jury duty. It can’t be any worse than what we’ve been doing for the last 2-300 years in the West.
Like I’ve been saying… 3-5 years total cumulative government service at any and all levels. Period.
If you must have “career” people to maintain continuity of experience? They don’t get to vote, they don’t get actual power, and all they have is advisory authority. Period.
Any time you create these entrenched hierarchies, they self-corrupt because we don’t do a good job of policing the ranks manning them. If it were the case that peers looked at incipient Comeys and J. Edgar Hoovers as being unsuitable, and did something? We wouldn’t need rules like this. Because we don’t? We need to put limitations on who gets power, and how long they exercise it. Sad fact is, if there is room for self-enrichment and self-engrandizement, the wrong sorts will gravitate towards the jobs granting them that.
It’s a lot like bank robbery: The reason the robbers are attracted to banks is because that’s where we keep the money. Same with pedophiles and child-facing jobs: That’s where the kids are. Our system is currently set up to attract the precise wrong sort of human being towards working the system from within for their own benefit. Look at Fauci: He’s made a career of incompetence and malfeasance in public health. If you said “Guy running NIAH/CDC/Whatever only gets 5 years in the job, period…”? He wouldn’t exist as a threat.
I get that “experience” is a good thing, but when that “experience” gets suborned and turned towards self-benefit? I think we can do without it.
It’s funny you mentioned the military and General/Flag Officers earlier. I’ve sometimes thought it might be better if we cap careers at O-6 and stars come with command billets only. Meaning, generals and admirals exist only to command units and fleets. The US currently has more four star generals than we had during WW2, when we had some 13 million men in uniform. We have more admirals than we do ships. Unless someone is leading a brigade or the naval or air equivalent, they can do the job as an O-6. All those administrative type jobs that don’t involve actually being in front of troops in combat don’t need stars on their collars.
The problem is the permanent hierarchy, I fear.
I am a big believer in flat organizations; you want leadership at a certain level? You should have to prove yourself each and every day. As well as the fact that permanent position in a hierarchy feeds ego-blossoming, you have the reality that nobody is “good” each and every day in each and every way. Last person that “good” was, per reports, one Jesus Christ. And, we all know what they did with him…
I have observed the way they treat General Officer (GO) ranks; they get surrounded by a little coterie of smarmy politicking (emphasis on “tick”) types who’re on the make for their own benefit; the military is rife with “careerists”, and if someone ever says they’re doing something because it will be “good for their careers”, then that’s prima facie evidence of their utter and outright corruption of the soul, and they should be thrown out on their ears.
The GO officers are in a bubble, surrounded by yes-men, who cater to their every whim. While I was at I Corps, I witnessed the then-CG (who was later done up for corruption, along with his buddy-buddy Command Sergeant Major) express what was a mere question, like “Why are those soldiers wearing that uniform item during physical training…?”. This resulted in one of the remora-like junior officers writing and publishing under the CG’s signature (which said CG never actually saw…) a policy letter outlawing said uniform item for physical training… Which was incredibly stupid, because it was winter, and the incidence of frostbite to the ears went up to the point where the Corps Surgeon went in and threw himself on a sword in the CG’s office, saying that the policy on beanie caps had to be rescinded… At which point, the CG said “WHAT policy on beanie hats…? What are these beanie hats?”
What had happened, basically, was that the Army had recently made a change from a knit wool watch cap to a fleece version. The old wool watch caps weren’t in the PX anymore, and few had them, but they were the only things authorized, and that colonel hadn’t actually checked with anyone on the issue, or run it past the Command Sergeant Major for the corps, either, soooo… Lots of egg on lots of faces.
But, that’s the way a lot of things go: Someone with a star has a whim, and 10,000 men are suddenly freezing their asses off.
If I were to run a military force, none of that shit would happen, because nobody would be in a position to implement that sort of stupidity. Hierarchy is bad; static hierarchy is positively demonic. It’s my contention that “command” is and should be a separate thing from day-to-day running of units, which ought rightly be solely in the hands of men specialized and experienced at it. The idea that you’re going to laterally plug some twerp in who just graduated college, and have him in authority over men who’ve been doing the job and running small units for literal decades is flatly ‘effing insane. And, they have the temerity to ask those poor enlisted bastards to “train” the junior officers placed over them, as though that’s ever going to happen when they outrank the NCO in question, and actually rate him for performance. Sheer insanity; the only reason it works is due to all the traditional informal work-arounds, but on paper…? None of those exist, and there’s no appealing a career-killing rating issued by some smarmy git that was in diapers when you were running troops up on the Inner German Border as a team and squad leader…
Kirk: Sounds like you want the Navy’s idea – the seasoned Commanding Officer as Captain, with the young academy-trained-in-all-the-new-stuff Executive Officer below him but issuing the day-to-day commands – subject to CO’s correction on the spot.
The other branches try to copy this, but their version of a captain ends up being behind the lines, disconnected from the fight. The Navy Captain sinks with the ship. The Army leaders read about the firefight later.
I’d actually go far, far past the Navy’s idea.
For one thing, I’d have positional rank; you’re in charge if you’re set in charge of a given task-oriented unit only if the higher-ups and your likely subordinates are willing to put up with you. The whole thing would be on a purely entrepreneurial level; you can’t gather enough subordinates willing to work with you? Ya don’t get the command. All the way up and down the hierarchy scale…
The thing is, what I observed was this: The lower enlisted scum really do know their officers better than their peers or seniors; if you wanted to really, truly know about a battalion- or brigade-level commander, all you needed to do was observe how many of his future NCOs either worked to get assigned to his unit, or jumped ship. If you see a guy whose appointment generates dozens of requests for transfer and retirement? That’s a most excellent sign that you’ve done f*cked up by selecting him to entrust with that unit.
Believe me, I’ve seen that very thing happen, multiple times. You’re sitting around, someone announces that “Hey, guess what? We’re getting Lieutenant Colonel Scumbucket as our next commander…”, then you observe that every single senior NCO who ever worked for or around that specimen in the past has a sick look on their face, and immediately start generating paperwork to get out of the unit…?
You know what’s coming. I’ve never seen it fail; if some guy’s mere impending assignment generates that sort of reaction, he’s going to suck as a commander. Just like when he comes in with a speech at the Change of Command ceremony, and starts talking about “loyalty” and “honor”. Clearer warning signs of “sucks to be you, sucks to be in his unit” cannot be had.
JohnK – you have a point Sir.
I live in a Grade II listed building in a “conservation area”. New windows and guttering are needed. I have been told that if I fit plastic guttering I could get in serious trouble. It is a nightmare. The contractors we have got in for quotes know it is a nightmare. We have been working together on “get outs” such as not “replacing” but “repairing”. A cute distinction. I have lived here for 17 years. I am frequently complemented on how good the place looks which usually comes with, “It must be lovely to live in such an old building”. Yeah…
I am a Quaker warden (I am not a Quaker myself – the Quakers are toleraant in a way the council isn’t). The building is now a Meeting House which is let out for lots of other things. It is a vital part of the community. I have been told by contractors that people (including me and them) could go to jail for not doing this right. Also, that we absolutely have to avoid any planning visits because if they see the PVCu windows round the back Hell will follow. The biggest threat to this building is the council. Some of the solutions that are deemed acceptable are mind-bendingly expensive. We’ve just getting back to a normal hiring rate post Covid and the purse is tight. Yes, there is a natural lag due to the pandemic but whilst the council are being dickless pecksniffs what they aren’t doing is mending the road which is putting many hirers off. The road would disgrace a rough part of Mogadishu.
I literally feel like Peter Venkman v. Walter Peck.
I have had thoughts. Dark thoughts involving duct-tape, an out-building (and yes, we do have one that would make Hannibal Lector soil himself – it’s called “The Middle Shed”), a Breville sandwich toaster, headphones and a download of “My Pal Foot Foot” by The Shaggs. Please don’t click that link. Unless you have a local government official to torture. Then that’s OK. You have my blessing.
I think I’ve got over them. I only had them because quite simply I thought if I’m gonna wind-up in Strangeways over an incorrect choice of guttering then why the fuck not go the whole hog! They’d make drama-docs about me for Sky. I’m OK with that as long as they don’t cast Chesney Hawkes as me…
NickM
Councils are, in turn, victims of national regulations.
For example, the new roof for Kettering library (only built 1904 – so not even Victorian, let alone ancient) will cost more than three times more than it should (millions of Pounds to be paid by the local taxpayers) because of national regulations (which “English Heritage” is in charge of) insisting on a particular type of stone and-so-on.
Paul it may grimly amuse you to learn that the Albert Memorial is being criticised for being…
… too Victorian.
Now who said that? Was it Jeremy Corben? No. It wasn’t. It was The Royal Parks themselves.
We don’t just live in a post-truth World but in one where even satire is no longer possible.
NickM
The capture of all the major institutions by Frankfurt School “Woke” Marxism has consequences.
And those consequences have only just started – I doubt there will be much left of this country in five years, perhaps there will not be much left of the Western world.
A Parish Councillor speaks.
“no longer has a parish council” is wrong. A parish council can only ve abolished through a local governance review by the principle authority “above” the parish. A parish council cannot abolish itself. It can put itself into suspension by all the members resigning, it can cease to function by all the paid staff resigning, but it can only no longer exist by explicit action by the district/county council.
The law requires the principal authority to take over the functions of the parish council, and call for replacement members to allow it to function again. We’ve gone through this a couple of times in our area where the elections resulted in a non-quorate council or – in one case – no councillors at all. If the principle authority cannot get the council seats filled – either by election or co-option – it can then use that as evidence to submit to a community governance review with the aim of abolition. But as of my typing this, Broughton Moor parish still has a parish council.
jgh – correct.
But if the Parish Clerk has really resigned – then there is no need to pay him.
And paying the Parish Clerk is where most spending by a Parish Council (at least of a lot of them) goes.
That is the real function of a Parish Council – to employ the Parish Clerk.