For some years here in Derby we have dutifully been recycling our waste, with one of our bins being a brown bin for garden waste and food leftovers.
Derby City Council have now had a rethink on the process and in a leaflet that was delivered with our new larger blue bins (more below) they dropped in a small section about the brown bin collection.
They tell us that next year they will charge for collection of the brown bin. Of course they blame the government, to quote the leaflet
'This is because of government cuts to our budget which means we have no choice but to stop providing some services for free. This will allow us to protect other services such as children's centres, care homes and libraries'
I have two objections to the above statement:
Firstly they were not providing the service for free, waste collection is part of what I pay my council tax for. I won't see a reduction in the council tax but an additional charge for a service I have already paid for!
Secondly they are still cutting the services they claim this charge is to protect - work that one out.
It gets better however. If I don't want to pay the charge I can opt out of having my bin collected - I am sure the administrative costs there will not be trivial, and if say 50% of households do so across the city then it is likely there will be no cost savings as the bin wagons and their crews will still be needed for the other 50%. Furthermore I am told that if I don't want my bin collecting I can put the waste I presently recycle in with the non recyclable waste so it can go to landfill - where is the sense in that?
There also seems to be a retrograde step with the blue bins. To date we have had a small blue bin for plastics, glass and cans. This has now been replaced with a larger bin into which we can also add the paper and card previously collected in a blue bag and orange bag respectively. I hope this is because it is more cost effective to sort it at the depot but nothing has been said. Is there some other reason? Is it being recycled at all?
This also leaves us with our old small blue bin. These are to be collected in or we can do a bit of 'Blue Peter' and turn them into composing bins! I trust if collected in they will be recycled but once again I have my doubts.
There appears to be no coherent approach to recycling - but a very clear plan to extract yet more money from the captive taxpayer!
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Monday, April 1, 2013
BMW - The Ultimate Driving Machine?
BMW advertise their cars as 'The Ultimate Driving Machine'. I would suggest that no car can really meet this claim fully.
Over the weekend I visited a local National Trust property where the majority of the parking is on grass areas. Being a Bank Holiday weekend it was not surprising that the tarmac surfaced car park was full and the grass areas were in use. The recent weather meant that the grass had become muddy at the entrance to the car park but was on the whole in quite good condition.
I drove in and parked up with no problems, but as I was getting out of the car I became aware of two BMW drivers starting a heated discussion with the parking marshal and objecting to where he wanted them to park. Their claim was that if they parked there their cars would be stuck. This despite the parking area being only slightly on a slope. Apparently they felt they could not reverse up this minor slope so if the cars in front (in a double parkied row) didn't move then they were going nowhere.
This does not sound like an ultimate driving machine to me!
It is true that in slippery conditions rear wheel drive cars can have issues with traction but no one else was complaining.
Front wheel drive cars like mine are better in these situations but are by no means perfect, primarily because they use the same wheels for driving and steering.
Four wheel drive cars also have problems, such as increased fuel consumption, weight and technical complexity.
So is there an ultimate driving machine? I suggest there is not, simply cars which are good in specific areas.
Perhaps BMW should append a disclaimer to their advert - Terms and Conditions Apply
Over the weekend I visited a local National Trust property where the majority of the parking is on grass areas. Being a Bank Holiday weekend it was not surprising that the tarmac surfaced car park was full and the grass areas were in use. The recent weather meant that the grass had become muddy at the entrance to the car park but was on the whole in quite good condition.
I drove in and parked up with no problems, but as I was getting out of the car I became aware of two BMW drivers starting a heated discussion with the parking marshal and objecting to where he wanted them to park. Their claim was that if they parked there their cars would be stuck. This despite the parking area being only slightly on a slope. Apparently they felt they could not reverse up this minor slope so if the cars in front (in a double parkied row) didn't move then they were going nowhere.
This does not sound like an ultimate driving machine to me!
It is true that in slippery conditions rear wheel drive cars can have issues with traction but no one else was complaining.
Front wheel drive cars like mine are better in these situations but are by no means perfect, primarily because they use the same wheels for driving and steering.
Four wheel drive cars also have problems, such as increased fuel consumption, weight and technical complexity.
So is there an ultimate driving machine? I suggest there is not, simply cars which are good in specific areas.
Perhaps BMW should append a disclaimer to their advert - Terms and Conditions Apply
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