Eideard

An eight-year-old boy was left in tears after being sent a letter threatening him with the debt collectors over an overdue library book.

Jamie Rogers had borrowed a book called ‘A Very Fishy Battle’ by author Jeremy Strong from the Central Library in Bromley, south east London, over the summer holidays. Little Jamie and his brother Kai, six, had borrowed a string of books from the council-run library after taking part in a campaign to get kids reading during the school break.

But after forgetting to return just one book, a letter was sent out addressed to him telling him that he should contact the library immediately or be referred to a ‘debt collection service’.

Jamie’s mum Michelle, 38, of Orpington said her son burst into tears when he opened the letter – and was terrified he would be arrested by the police and hauled before a court.

…She said: “I was horrified. “What is the world coming to when you have to threaten an eight-year-old for an overdue library book..?

“Surely a gentle reminder that a book has been out for a while might be sufficient, instead of a threatening letter of this manner…”

A spokesman for Bromley Council said the letter was incorrectly addressed to the eight-year-old and that its library does not charge children late return fees.

The spokesman added: “…”Children’s books are not charged overdue fees but we have a duty to ensure that books are available for everyone after their initial loan period, blah-blah-blah.”

Yes, I added the “blah-blah-blah”. Lower-level petty bureaucrats who don’t get it are part of the whole process of separating service facilities in practice from the people they were chartered to serve.

I hope local users of the Central Library in Bromley, London SE, take the time to discuss procedures, budgets, the intent and function of libraries with folks responsible for running the library. Blah-blah-blah!

Twitter has been forced to hand over the personal details of a British user in a libel battle that could have huge implications for free speech on the web.

The social network has passed the name, email address and telephone number of a south Tyneside councillor accused of libelling the local authority via a series of anonymous Twitter accounts. South Tyneside council took the legal fight to the superior court of California, which ordered Twitter, based in San Francisco, to hand over the user’s private details.

It is believed to be the first time Twitter has bowed to legal pressure to identify anonymous users and comes amid a huge row over privacy and free speech online…

Ahmed Khan, the south Tyneside councillor accused of being the author of the pseudonymous Twitter accounts, described the council’s move as “Orwellian”. Khan received an email from Twitter earlier this month informing him that the site had handed over his personal information. He denies being the author of the allegedly defamatory material.

“It is like something out of 1984,” Khan told the Guardian. “If a council can take this kind of action against one of its own councillors simply because they don’t like what I say, what hope is there for freedom of speech or privacy?”

… “I don’t fully understand it but it all relates to my Twitter account and it not only breaches my human rights, but it potentially breaches the human rights of anyone who has ever sent me a message on Twitter.

“A number of whistleblowers have sent me private messages, exposing any wrongdoing in the council, and the authority knows this.”

He added: “I was never even told they were taking this case to court in California. The first I heard was when Twitter contacted me. I had just 14 days to defend the case and I was expected to fly 6,000 miles and hire my own lawyer – all at my expense…

A spokesman for south Tyneside council said the legal action was brought by the authority’s previous chief executive, but has “continued with the full support” of the current head.

In other articles, the council said they’ve already spent about £75,000 on the investigation and lawsuit. No doubt they will claim compensation for expenses in addition to damages. But, as Ahmed Khan says in the article – all the “guilty” blogger need do is declare bankruptcy and the adjudication goes out the window.

Holy smoke!

A council is proposing to save money – and combat global warming – by heating a leisure centre and swimming pool using heat generated by the crematorium next door.

Redditch council in Worcestershire says it can save £14,500 a year by warming its new Abbey Stadium sports centre with heat from the crematorium’s incinerators that would otherwise be lost.

The council, which says it is the first project of its kind in the UK, is holding briefings later this week with faith groups, funeral directors and members of the public to discuss the scheme.

But some local people are concerned. Simon Thomas, of Thomas Brothers funeral directors, said: “I don’t know how comfortable people would feel about the swimming pool being heated due to the death of a loved one, I think it’s a bit strange and eerie.”

Council leader Carole Gandy defended the plans, saying it would save money and energy. “I’d much rather use the energy rather than just see it going out of the chimney and heating the sky. It will make absolutely no difference to the people who are using the crematorium for services…I think it will save the authority money and, in the long-term, save energy which is what we’re all being told we should do.”

Be careful about all that common sense stuff, Ms. Gandy. It will get you in trouble every time.

Southwestern Pennsylvania residents are rallying in support of a hometown victim of budget cuts — the local police dog.

Officials in Jefferson Hills cut the funding for the canine program that supported Fritz, who rode in a patrol car with a handler and visited schools in campaigns to combat drug abuse.

The canine program cost about $7,000 a year but the handler earned as much as $30,000 extra for having the dog, said Police Chief Jack Maple. The canine program shut down in December.

But residents started raising money to revive the canine program after last month’s closing, and dozens of Fritz supporters attended a council meeting this week to encourage officials to reinstate the 5-year-old German Shepherd…

A local convenience store has sold nearly 600 “Fritz Bones” — pictures of bones that customers can buy and hang on the walls of the store — for $1 apiece.

Proceeds will be given to the dog’s handler, who is caring for Fritz whether officials reinstate the program or not, said store owner Carrie Howard.

“We’re angry,” Howard said. “We’re not done with this.”

The town council has no end of excuses. No surprises there, either.

Pehaps they might experiment with laying off administrators and accountants.

Try one of these on for size in Shadwell

A judge declared that Tower Hamlets council in east London had ”acted unlawfully” when it gave the go-ahead for ”Fried & Fabulous” to open for business close to Bishop Challoner Catholic Collegiate School in Shadwell.

The judge said councillors had voted in favour of permission after being wrongly directed that they could not take account of the proximity of the local secondary school because it was not ”a material planning consideration”…

Councillor Peter Golds, leader of the council’s Conservative group, said later: ”This is a very important High Court decision.

”It clarifies the law and sets a benchmark that will enable local authorities everywhere to take account of health and well-being – particularly of schoolchildren – as factors in determining planning applications…”

The school’s executive head, Catherine Myers, wrote a letter describing how the establishment was achieving outstanding examination results by educating ”the whole person”.

Its healthy eating policy meant ”no chips, fatty foods, sweets, fizzy drinks etc are sold on the premises”.

The ruling was a victory for Edward Copeland, who lives opposite the proposed takeaway and brought today’s successful legal challenge.

His lawyers pointed to the potential adverse impact of Fried & Fabulous on Bishop Challoner’s attempt to encourage healthy eating among its pupils.

Here in the freedom-loving American West, golly, I can only think of a half-dozen drive-up greasy food specialists in the middle of a three-school complex in the South Side of Santa Fe.

Including “Los Doggos”

A body lay undiscovered under a sofa in a sheltered flat in Bristol for nearly 10 years, an inquest has heard.

The dead man, Denis Pring, 73, had been living with a city council tenant Alan Derrick, who has learning difficulties.

The inquest heard Mr Derrick did not want to tell the authorities that Mr Pring had died because he was worried he would be evicted…

Mr Pring, a former warehouseman, is believed to have died at some point between April and June 1998…

Mr Derrick, the dead man’s friend and drinking partner, had invited him to stay there because he had nowhere else to go. But when he died suddenly, Mr Derrick panicked and worried that he might be evicted.

He covered up the body with cushions and two armchairs and carried on living in the flat in Bedminster, Bristol, for the next 10 years without reporting the death.

Neighbours complained to the council about foul smells from the flat but although council officers visited twice the body was never found.

Mr Pring’s skeleton was discovered in January 2008 when cleaners were brought in after Mr Derrick was evicted from the flat following a county court order…

The council’s deputy chief executive, Jon House, acknowledged a “more active intervention nine or 10 years ago”, and a ” healthier dose of common sense”, might have led to Mr Pring’s body being found earlier.

Aside from the dude probably being a bit more than slightly round the bend, the fact that fear of becoming homeless should prompt the bureaucrats involved to learn something about their clients.

As we all are.

A South Florida town manager who married a porn star last year was fired at an emergency meeting after the mayor and council members learned about it.

Fort Myers Beach town council voted 5-0 to fire Scott Janke “without cause” after Mayor Larry Kiker called the Tuesday night meeting.

Kiker told the News-Press of Fort Myers he learned that afternoon that Janke’s wife is an adult film star, and the elected officials took the action a few hours later.

“We did everything we could not to judge,” Kiker told the paper. “It’s not about him and her. It’s about the town.”

Adult Industry News recently reported that Janke’s wife, Anabela Mota Janke, goes by the stage name Jazella Moore.

Kiker said a clause in Janke’s contract permitted the council to fire him with a majority vote….

Kiker acknowledged that Janke had violated no rules or laws and added that he had done a good job for the island town….

Councilman Tom Babcock, responding to residents’ questions, said at a council meeting Wednesday that Janke was fired because his wife’s profession brought an inaccurate image to Fort Myers Beach, according to the News-Press.

Just what we need, government based on what-will-the-neighbors-think.

Bigotry and intolerance take many forms. Being from the south, I am well familiar with the Christian practice of “not judging people.” According to the article, it took only a few hours for them not to judge. Believe me, I’ve met these people over and over again in my life. They don’t see the hypocrisy. They see themselves as nice people. Amazing, but true.

A guerrilla gardener resembling a B-movie villain has been taking direct action against an Essex council decision to slash its flowers and shrub budget.

The self-styled Human Shrub, covered in green foliage, struck for the second time on Sunday when he replaced weeds with flowers to transform dormant plant containers in Colchester, eastern England.

The shrub, whose identity remains a secret, first emerged earlier this year when he protested in full plant regalia outside the town hall against Colchester council’s plan to turf over rose beds to save money. He waved a banner urging people to “save his brothers the shrubs, and sisters the roses”.

The council reversed its decision to tear out and grass over one in five roadside flower beds in Colchester following protests, in an affair dubbed “shrubgate” by opposition councillors.

The Human Shrub was back at the weekend, taking direct action to reinvigorate the town’s empty or weed-strewn plant containers.

The activist may have become a superhero to those unhappy at the state of the town’s green spaces but Colchester council is distinctly unamused at the antics of the guerrilla gardener, who bears more than a passing resemblance to the comic book character Swamp Thing.

The Colchester Council amuses me. RTFA – and their rationale over the latest adventure is that “the planting season had yet to begin”.

Leave the Human Shrub alone – or fix the problem. Dictating livability to a township based on budget constraints is a politician’s solution – not that of a human being. Or Human Shrub.

Council chiefs in Birmingham, England, were left red-faced when they mistakenly used a picture of their U.S. namesake in Alabama on thousands of official leaflets.

Pamphlets about recycling in the West Midlands bore an image showing the skyline of the city in the Deep South.

Under the headline “Thank You Birmingham!,” the picture showed office blocks in the U.S. city, rather than its own distinctive Rotunda tower and the curvy Selfridges store.

The council said it had made a mistake, but had no plans to recall the leaflets.

They’re probably City fans, as well.