-
what can happen when using a cherry picker on a public road
This is just hilarious.
I’ve just been asked to replace a sign. Half of it fell down last week (I didn’t do the job originally, before you ask!).
Anyways, it would require a cherry picker and is in the town centre, so I thought I would do the right thing and inform the county council. They asked for a copy of my Public Liability Insurance Certificate. No problem there, that’s fair enough I thought. Oh, and we’ll need your cheque for ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE BLEEDIN POUNDS!Again, ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE QUID. That’s what it costs for them to open an email with a scan of my insurance certificate and then write in a book that I am going to be putting a sign on a wall for about an hour. Worst of all, the sign is only worth about a hundred quid.
Ok, I feel better now.
-
14 Replies
-
Civil servants at their best (:)
-
that’s OUTRAGEOUS!!!!!!!!!!! 😮
-
Sure its not April 1st 😮
Thats nuts.
Didn’t think it was possible, but your councils are worse tan ours 🙂
I thought I had a bad experience the other day, but yours beats me hands down….. My bank stuffed up my account, and caused me to go overdrawn.
They bounced a $48.00 dollar cheque, because it took me into overdraft, charged me $35.00 as a penalty for going overdrawn before they dishonered the cheque, and my supplier was charged $30.00 by his bank for my cheque being dishonored too, which I also had to pay back to him.
I rang the bank and pointed out I DID have money in the account, they admitted they had a glitch, and apologised. They reluctantly refunded my dishonor fee, but refused to reimburse me for the other bank.
The only difference between a Bank and a Bank Robber is that the Robber doesn’t employ staff 👿
-
That’s typical Andy, but I’m not in the least bit surprised – Councils at their best. Totally inefficient and regarding small business as a cash cow to help fund their inefficient services. They get away with it though because no one polices them and they answer to nobody. We recently had a huge spate of road re-surfacing going on everywhere (even though there was nothing wrong with the roads before). It was near the end of finanacial year so they had to spend their budget before the new financial year to ensure they got funding for the next year. Common sense doesn’t come into it – it’s all politics
-
Cloak and dagger sign fitting now….I can see us all going out at night with balaclavas on in unmarked vehicles just to get away with putting up signs.
-
Same thing happened to me though Bolton council wanted £500 – they say
it’s to handle added phone calls of people complaining while the work is in progress – (well don’t answer the phone then).I just did the work at 2am and let them work out how we got the signage up there – if they ask just say you put VHB tape on the back, galloped along on your horse and threw it up there.
Just remember they don’t work a FULL day unlike us signfitters
-
Are you speaking to the right person?
You need to speak to the Highways Officer for that area. They should be prepared to meet you on site and discuss jobs without any charge, its their job.
Normal charges are inline with scaffold permit costs, we had 4m of pavement covered in scaffolding for a week with a pedestrian tunnel and the council only charged £112+vat for the permit.
Also some councils will allow you to do the work on a ‘temporary’ which means if it is under 4 hours and you use proper pedestrian management, cones, barriers and make sure there is enough walkway width then you don’t need a permit.
-
in Africa nothing like this happens.
You just put the sign wherever you want. and whenever.
if i had to phone council it would take me about a week to speak to the right person as they go on week long tea breaks. after that they would have no idea what i am talking about and would end up lying about the charges and ask for a bribe instead.
Welcome to africa i would say.
-
quote DaneRead:in Africa nothing like this happens.You just put the sign wherever you want. and whenever.
if i had to phone council it would take me about a week to speak to the right person as they go on week long tea breaks. after that they would have no idea what i am talking about and would end up lying about the charges and ask for a bribe instead.
Welcome to africa i would say.
oooooohhh, I miss the good old days 🙄
-
i have heard of companies/maybe council holding back 5%-10% of the invoice value until a period goes by, kinda cooling off period to protect them from shoddy work.
-
quote :Also some councils will allow you to do the work on a ‘temporary’ which means if it is under 4 hours and you use proper pedestrian management, cones, barriers and make sure there is enough walkway width then you don’t need a permit.I know our permitting situations are probably different, but I’ve also been able to get temporary permits for things taking less than 2 days to complete. It lowered the price from $150 to $35.
-
I’d go into stealth mode Andy.
Our council get enough money out of me without giving them any more unnecessarily.
-
John said:
quote :I’d go into stealth mode Andy.Yeah. On a bank holiday.
-
Or weekends, before 10am and after 4pm weekdays (and any time on a Friday afternoon).
Or is it just Cardiff’s council that grinds to a halt at these times?
Log in to reply.
