On 12/10/06 18:58, in article ,
"David in Normandy" wrote:


"Farm1" please@askifyouwannaknow wrote in message
news:452e26d8$0$1481$5a62ac22@per-qv1-
How irritating. Perhaps the jobsworth thinks that all gardens must be
tiny although what garden refuse fits into most car boots these days
isn't much at all..

Here in France, the capital of bureaucracy, it is now necessary to take
rubbish to a local official first, who makes a list of everything you want
to discard. You are then issued with an official document to take to the
local rubbish point where your rubbish is checked against the list. However,
they don't take lots of items, so people are left wondering what to do with
old TV sets and refrigerators. As someone commented recently on being turned
away - "Here comes the woods...". Ridiculous.

To be honest, David, I'm amazed that the French capitulate on this. They're
not exactly known for embracing ridiculous bureaucracy - I thought that was
our national problem! I've thought for some time that the British should
hold some French-type demos, though possibly not the 'burning of the lambs'
foulness.
All I can say is that the "Here come the woods" remark is precisely what is
beginning here and what will continue. Our rubbish collection here is now
food waste every fortnight, so people with no garden or courtyard are left
with a stinking bag of food for two weeks and they are not allowed to
dispose of it in a plastic bag. We are issued with two bins here for food
waste, one little one for under the sink and one large wheelie bin outside.
We have to fill the latter with the former for two weeks before the latter
is emptied. IMO, it's only a matter of time before people who lack space
start throwing food waste into hedgerows, too.
Just recently, I wrote to our local council (I think I'm on a file somewhere
because I have moaned so much about this lack of service that we pay for!)
asking for precise information as to the disposal of rubbish because there
seemed to be some confusion as to which days they'd changed it to. We've had
two letters changing the arrangement inside a month. We have trade waste to
take away in summer, too, BTW and that is taken weekly. So - I got a long
and slightly pompous harangue from their PR person which failed entirely to
give me any date and time information but told me that every household had
received it in a letter, with an accompanying calendar and really,
insinuating that I shouldn't be such a fool or a nuisance. I replied saying
we'd had both the letter and the calendar and that our trade waste had, in
the previous week, been collected on the wrong day altogether but without
warning. Funnily enough, I've had no reply..... And our Council Tax is over
£2k per year. We have no street lighting (absolutely do NOT want it) and
the road surfaces are abysmal in places. Hmmm.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/