By Isle of Wight Observer
Putting air in your tyres used to be a free service provided by garages. Then it became 20p. Yesterday, I paid £1. I guess that’s inflation for you.
All modern cars have tyre pressure sensors, which irritatingly warn you of impending doom even if there’s the tiniest pressure difference. Thanks to those repetitive warning messages, the only way is up for forecourt tyre inflator charges and garage profits.
Specsavers sent me a reminder that I’m due an eye test. When I ignored it, they sent another one in a much larger font. I thought that was marketing genius. Last week I mentioned the government’s plan to jail fly tippers for up to five years. It’s evident that disposing of household and builders rubbish in the middle of country lanes, lay-bys or farm gateways is a problem. With 6-yard skips costing £300-£400 these days, fly tipping isn’t going away anytime soon.
Do you remember John Selwyn Gummer – the politician who force-fed his child burgers during the BSE crisis? He was also Environment Secretary in 1996 when landfill taxes were introduced. They seemed to make sense and encouraged us all to recycle, but the waste industry made a killing on the back of it.
‘Where there’s muck there’s brass’ goes the old saying, and it’s still true.
Waste transfer stations allow rubbish to be tipped out and sorted, very little of it actually goes into landfill. It’s smelly dirty work, but most things can be recycled fairly easily and of course that’s made the waste industry very profitable indeed.
When it appears on their land, poor farmers have to pay up to get it loaded up and taken away, and some fall victim again and again. Other than more surveillance in commonly abused places, I don’t know what else can be done. The only people legally allowed to shift rubbish are licensed waste carriers. Obtaining a license is a simple on-line process, no-one checks to see if you’re bonafide.
On Facebook, I saw an anonymous poster offering to dispose of garden waste cheaply. Someone pointed out that he wouldn’t use anyone without knowing who they were.
If a bloke cuts your grass and trims your hedge for £20 cash, they need a license to take the cuttings away. If they’re working cash in hand, it’s likely they won’t bother with a waste license.
As with all crime, the first time someone is apprehended they’re bound to have a good excuse and swear that this was their first time. Fines are usually derisory because the cause of the criminal behaviour is usually the death of a family member or much-loved goldfish. Relationship breakdown is popular mitigation too. Regular readers of court reports know that mental health has become a common cause of crime. I often scratch my head wondering what you need to do to get jailed these days. Everyone knows the prisons are full, but clearly the vast number of serious offenders, including violent thugs and paedophiles rarely face imprisonment. Serial drink drivers, shop thieves and various others all manage to keep their liberty while paying the minimum in fines.
On the Island last week, a strangely obsessed man was jailed for hurtful comments and stalking on-line, not in person while tree fellers were fined £2,000 each for felling a large number of trees. They’ll also pay £2,689.62 in costs.
Incredibly, on conviction, those Cumbrian ‘Sycamore Gap’ tree fellers were remanded in custody and told they ‘face a lengthy period in jail.’ They are undoubtedly a pair of planks, but how does stupidly chopping down a single tree justify sending two hardworking idiots to jail for an extended period when wicked crimes against the person rarely attract a custodial sentence?