Sir, Headlines such as “Chainsaw fine for council” irritate me no end. What the headline should say is, “Taxpayers hit again due to council incompetence” or something similar.
This fine isn’t going to come from anyone employed by Fife Council. From the report in Tuesday’s Courier it would appear that someone in the council hierarchy decided it would be a good idea to get school janitors to carry out “basic chainsaw work”.
Unfortunately, what constitutes “basic chainsaw work” appears to not have been very well defined and someone despatched the gentleman to deal with an ash tree which had blown down.
One would think that it would have been realised that dealing with a fallen ash tree would require slightly more than “basic chainsaw training”. Not so far as someone in Fife Council was concerned, apparently
The statement from the directorate resources manager suggests Fife Council have now decided it wasn’t such a good idea after all having janitorial staff using chain saws and have discontinued the practice, putting “more robust health and safety processes in place”. What happened to the originators of the idea?
This leads me on to another article in the same issue, “Axe council tax freeze’. The suggestion that “councillors, as democratically elected representatives, have effectively lost all revenue raising powers following the introduction of the council tax freeze”, is an oversimplification of reality.
The biggest cost in Fife Council is the wage bill and, in my experience, councillors have little or no control over the bureaucracy in Fife Council, as is evidenced by the size of the salaries, and evermore creative titles invented by the “executive” to justify those salaries eg “directorate resources manager”, whatever that means.
George Walker. 24 George Street, Cellardyke.
Treading on dangerous ground . . .
Sir, For more than a century trade unionists have had the right to picket peacefully at or near their place of work. What should we make of the recent clash between Prime Minister David Cameron and the trade union
Unite over so-called “leverage” tactics (The Courier, November 7)?
As a society we tread on very dangerous ground if we encourage action outside people’s private residences. On this occasion Mr Cameron has a very good point to make.
Industrial disputes are about what happens at a workplace. Since the Trades Disputes Act of 1906 the law has been careful to discourage picketing at or near someone’s private home.
Unite seems to be encouraging the growth of a “I know you where you live” type of politics. This flies in the face of most people’s concerns for civil liberties and protection of privacy. That concern should be shared by
Labour leader Ed Miliband. He could do himself and his party a favour by making clear that Unite’s new-found “leverage” tactic is totally unacceptable.
The demos outside the homes of managers and directors, or indeed anyone else, should stop.
Bob Taylor. 24 Shiel Court, Glenrothes.
This initiative is welcome
Sir, NHS Tayside were accused of treating smokers “like children” (The Courier November 6).
More than 100,000 children in Scotland are affected by tobacco smoke at home 8,000 of them in Tayside according to the latest research.
Simon Clark of Forest suggests that parents do not need encouragement to avoid smoking in their homes around children.
Although most smoking parents do try to protect their children from their smoke, many aren’t aware of how much smoke travels around the house and lingers in the air.
Having children leave the room while someone smokes is not an effective method of protecting them from second-hand smoke.
The only way to safeguard the health of the family is to make the home smoke-free and we welcome NHS Tayside’s initiative encouraging parents to do that.
Sheila Duffy. Chief Executive, ASH Scotland, Edinburgh.
It will devalue our culture
Sir, Culture secretary Fiona Hyslop says “Scotland is more multicultural than ever before” and that our population will increase by 470,000 in the next 25 years with 81% of that increase due to inward migration.
In my view, such an invasion of incomers will devalue our own culture as has happened in England, whereby great swathes of their cities are now foreign ghettos.
George Aimer. 82 Kinghorne Road, Dundee.
Won’t forget Fife’s help
Sir, I am a 71-year-old South African visitor to your country who developed an incredibly painful muscle spasm in my back. My daughter called the Victoria Hospital, in Kirkcaldy, who sent an ambulance and two paramedics who arrived in just over five minutes!
There are no words to express my thanks to these two wonderful professional people, who were kindness itself. I also thank the staff of the A & E department in Victoria Hospital.
What an absolute pleasure it was to have such gentle, caring people to take care of me.
Thank you Fife, I will not forget you!
Mrs A Coetzer. A grateful South African.