"THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS" AND OTHER PLACES!

I expect that you are as tired of reading my ramblings about the weather as I am of writing them, truth to tell there has been little else to write about for the past week! Gale has followed gale and storm after storm, punctuated only by bouts of torrential rain and the power cuts to which we are now becoming accustomed.

Severe weather warnings have become an every day occurrence as has watching the level of the brook which runs through the village; and which has in the past caused serious flooding:

By day the sight of flying debris has become the norm and by night the howling of the wind in the roof and the sound of it's howling down the chimneys has kept everyone awake for well over a week.

Each morning my son tours the grounds to check the trees and fences and has been obliged to remove fallen branches from the drive several times these past days. Friday nights storm left the fence at the front of the property half way across the road, it was to have been strengthened during the previous week but the weather was too wet and windy for the gardener to undertake the work in safety. Murphy rides again!

Out two cats, having been mewed up….excuse the pun…… for days became, first skittish then morose, leaving the hearth only for long enough to eat or to use the litter trays…..I know exactly how they feel!

We decided to decorate the house for the Christmas Holiday in an attempt to cheer things up a little, it is difficult to feel festive with dustbins, fence panels and shed roofs hurtling past ones windows!

I must say that the inside of the house looks lovely with every room dressed for the holiday, but outside it is a different story.

During a lull in the storms (of about five minutes duration) we managed to decorate the porch with a string of coloured fairy lights of the solar powered variety. Unfortunately the light levels have been so low that the longest they have stayed on has been twenty minutes, some days it barely gets light at all.

In spite of the gathering gloom I intend to begin my Christmas baking tomorrow(power cuts permitting of course} there is nothing like the smell of spiced biscuits to led a festive air to the kitchen and the boys, grown up though they be are looking forward to a plate of warm cookies with their morning coffee.

Tonight the wind has died down a little and the house is not shaking quite so violently, unfortunately the weather forecast predicts more gales and heavy rain tomorrow, becoming storm force by the evening…….this is where I came in!

LOCAL AUTHORITIES SUCK!

I recently told you of a village controversy concerning the demolition of a row of perfectly good small houses available for rent to make way for a few very large ones to be sold for a fat profit., well the storm created by this action still rages.

This morning my letterbox was damaged when the Local Councillor and chief architect of the atrocity stuffed through it a large glossy pamphlet, which remunerated her recent “triumphs” and catalogued all the hard work she claims to have carried out on our behalf during the past month.

This epistle, known locally as” The Monthly Liar” is filled with photographs of our lady councillor as she flits about the borough like Batman doing good deeds(sic).

It is filled with glaring inaccuracies, overstatements and self aggrandising tales of the ladies deeds of daring do! She uses every local problem as a photo opportunity, rocks up, has her picture taken, promises to take action and then……...does nothing.

Irritated beyond measure I sent an e mail to her office asking them what it cost to publish this news letter and where the money to pay for it's publication came from.

I recently crossed swords with the lady in question and found her hectoring and evasive. Unable to answer most of my questions she blustered and prevaricated, but said nothing to the point.

The few comments she did make turned out, on investigation to be, shall we say, inaccurate?

Her tactic is to bully people into agreeing with her, she was most put out to find that it did not work with me and was obliged to retire worsted from the field.

I was particularly angry today as I discovered this morning that a young family of our acquaintance are being forced to leave the village as their tenancy of some years standing has been terminated and they have been unable to find affordable accommodation locally. This sad event is taking place at a time of year which makes their circumstances even more poignant.

Their little boy will have to go to a strange school and the family will lose a much needed support network of friends and relations and the mother will lose her part time job, it is tragic.

The contrast between our smug councillor and this sad little family was, I fear to much for my temper and I “Let rip” I do not regret a single word..

By the time Christmas comes they will have moved from their pretty little cottage in the village, to a dreary flat in a nearby town and I am not just angry, I am incandescent.

When the Housing association sold the land to a local builder they made a good deal of money, The Local Authority claim that this decision was not their responsibility, but the decision to build large expensive houses was. The entire affair has been suspect from start to finish!

As always it is the little people who suffer when politics goes rogue and even when everything is above board the amount of red tape makes dealing with the Local Authority almost impossible, as any attempt to communicate with them via their web site will prove.

It is time that Local Authorities in general and council officials in particular were made to understand that they are the servants of the rate payers, not their masters!

THE WHEELIE BIN MYSTERY

It is our misfortune to live in an area where the refuse is collected fortnightly and quite simply it does not work. Our Local Authority, a collection of incompetent cheeseparing chisellers issued this decree during a bout of swingeing cuts, a couple of years ago during a cost cutting exercise.

It is odd that they still seem to have plenty of resources available when it is a question of crackpot prestige projects but that is by the way.

When the fortnightly refuse collection came into force each household was issued with a medium sized wheelie bin and a small plastic box for recyclable rubbish.. We were ordered to recycle glass, tins, and cardboard, however plastic would not be collected! The lids of the bins must be able to close when the bin is full on pain of having your “over full” bin left unemptied.

This makes life difficult as of course cardboard waste takes up a good deal of space so that the box provided is often full in a couple of days, leaving one no alternative but to dispose of any further cardboard waste in the wheelie bin.

There are, of course recycle points in various places but there are none in the village so unless one has a car it is impossible to use these facilities, unless one is prepared to trek four miles while man hauling a mass of trash!

Our Generous Local Authority will only deign to collect any extra recyclable trash on payment of forty pounds, although it is possible to undercut them by handing over twenty pounds to the refuse collectors directly!

Naturally this edict has been the cause of much disquiet among the people of out lying villages such as ours and it is the elderly and disabled who suffer most from this ludicrous state of affairs.

Of course some have benefited from the regime, farmers for instance have noticed a decrease in their rat population, as the little blighter’s have given up the meagre rural diet found on the farms for the richer pickings to be had from village bins.

On bin day the village resembles Hamlin Town as the rat population swarm onto the roads in search of pickings left behind as the refuse collectors drop a considerable amount the contents of the bins in the road during the business of emptying them!

On occasion as much as a quarter of the bins contents has to be scrapped of the road and returned to ones bin, thus leaving even less space for any new refuse.

The scene is set, now for the mystery.

It seems that someone has taken a dislike to the, admittedly ugly bins and on the nights when they are left out for collection this unknown individual is touring the village undercover of darkness in order to wrench of their lids and fill them full of holes! This has been the cause of considerable annoyance to an already beleaguered and disgruntled village population.

Street lighting is sparse in this vicinity and one is obliged to use a flash light if one has occasion to roam the village after dark..

Some villagers have taken it upon themselves to creep about at night in an attempt to uncover the identity of the bin buster and to catch him red handed and this has lead to some amusing situations.

One poor soul, out walking his dog in the early hours of the morning was set upon by a pair of irate villagers when caught near a bin. It transpired that he was merely disposing of a bag of doggy poo rather than taking it home with him, in itself a pernicious practice, and one that is all too common here.

On another occasion a lady was caught stuffing her rubbish into a neighbours bin as hers was already full. Further investigation revealed that this too has become a common practice in the village and on Thursday nights when the bins are put out, the lanes are full of villagers creeping about in search of half empty bins in which to dispose of their own surplus rubbish!

Woe betide anyone who leaves a skip unattended for more than a few moments for he is sure to return to find it piled hight with bottles, tins and cardboard waste, not to mention plastic bottles, a local scourge.

In spite of the efforts of our amateur detectives the identity of the wheelie bin vandal remains a mystery.

The Local Authority are, of course, not at all pleased by the number of requests for new bins and have threatened to charge those who have requested more than one new bin in the past year; a statement which has caused howls of protest from all concerned:

It seems they believe that the villagers are trashing their own bins as a form of protest against the fortnightly collections, well I suppose it might be true but I think it unlikely as our own bin has been vandalised recently and we had nothing whatever to do with it's destruction. No honestly!

Meanwhile, tonight is bin night and I expect that once again the “Phantom Bin Basher! Will be abroad and about his nefarious pursuits.

I heard it privily that one gentleman has decided to hide inside his bin in order to catch the Phantom.

All I can say is that on a foul night like this, good luck to the fellow and rather him than me!