Volunteers to clean up the island

[Thefella]

26 minutes ago, asitis said:

It will be great until Elf and safety get involved !

A prime example of the bloat that taxpayers are funding, and it's still incapable of carrying out basic services.

We have got rid of most of the “dooers” in governemt and replaced them with managers who don’t do anything. The DOI used to have teams of people who worked on the roads, or who cut hedges or cleared verges. They even used to have a crappy old old bus with the top cut off that they used for lopping of tree limbs in main routes for years. Now the DOI just wait for £4k of damage to be caused and a passenger to be nearly killed when a branch smashes through the front of a bus like at Anagh Coar the other week because that’s easier than maintaining anything. The number of buses up at Banks Circus alone with smashed windows costing tens of thousands of pounds to repair is unbelievable. But never-mind we’ll just have them off the road being expensively re glassed as we don’t have the income budget to pay a few men £30K a year to actually do maintenance.

This is simply proof of how bloated and lazy the public sector here is. I wonder how many of the volunteers they want will work in the public sector? Presumably they will they all be wanting to maximize their leisure time at the weekend before they go back to a long week of doing sod all for top whack on Monday again? 

[Derek Flint]

5 minutes ago, Thefella said:

We have got rid of most of the “dooers” in governemt and replaced them with managers who don’t do anything. The DOI used to have teams of people who worked on the roads, or who cut hedges or cleared verges. They even used to have a crappy old old bus with the top cut off that they used for lopping of tree limbs in main routes for years. Now the DOI just wait for £4k of damage to be caused and a passenger to be nearly killed when a branch smashes through the front of a bus like at Anagh Coar the other week because that’s easier than maintaining anything. The number of buses up at Banks Circus alone with smashed windows costing tens of thousands of pounds to repair is unbelievable. But never-mind we’ll just have them off the road being expensively re glassed as we don’t have the income budget to pay a few men £30K a year to actually do maintenance.

This is simply proof of how bloated and lazy the public sector here is. I wonder how many of the volunteers they want will work in the public sector? Presumably they will they all be wanting to maximize their leisure time at the weekend before they go back to a long week of doing sod all for top whack on Monday again? 

Is that perhaps symptomatic of silos?

Buses nothing to do with Highways. It's a bit like the challenge I've had over here with street cleaning. Fylde Council in charge of cleaning, but Lancashire council in charge of drains. Fylde don't clear up, so all the crap (especially leaves in 'leafy Lytham') goes down the gullies and create blockages and flooding, which causes more expensive problems. 

Communication between the two authorities is poor, and so the problem compounds. But because the money is from two different pots in two different authorities any potential net savings to the public are ignored and lost.

[cissolt]

28 minutes ago, Derek Flint said:

I think that fundamentally this is a good thing. I used to cut the street verges outside my house on Grove Mount. Over here, I've just cleared two bin bags of detritus from our street. It looks better, and it serves to make a point. It's been easier to engage the councils and councillors in respect of addressing the wider matters, such as key repairs.

 

Some of those points made above are in respect of whether money is expended in the right places? That's an ongoing one, but in the meantime, the use of community service, and prison work parties seems like a positive move. And can these  schemes be used to create a wider sense of civic pride by engaging and motivating Communities? 

Back in my day as Inspector at Ramsey, there was a chap called Barry Butler-Smith. He corraled a lot of people into doing stuff around town, even painting shop fronts for people. He was great, and it made a difference. Communities really benefit from that sort of leadership but it's sustainability is key. 

Over time, it can change culture.

It seems to be similar to the Tory idea of national service, which as we know only appeals to a specific demographic who blame the youth for all of today's ills.

Our probation service is already struggling, as is community service so we are outsourcing it to bill dale while still providing the same level of funding to our crumbling services.

[Derek Flint]

6 minutes ago, cissolt said:

It seems to be similar to the Tory idea of national service, which as we know only appeals to a specific demographic who blame the youth for all of today's ills.

Our probation service is already struggling, as is community service so we are outsourcing it to bill dale while still providing the same level of funding to our crumbling services.

I get that, bit it perhaps could provide an opportunity for some breathing space for services too. There's a likely need to perhaps reset public expectations of public service. I think it has suffered from some mission creep, and in the good times probably ended up providing too much? Thoughts?

[The Bastard]

Remember, it's not compulsory. If you want to sit on your lazy arse at home whinging about how everything was better in the 1950s, complaining about litter and how everything needs to be fixed without actually doing anything about it, you're still free to do so. On the other hand, there are lots of people who want to improve things around them, and don't mind actually putting in some effort to improve things, instead of just complaining about them on the Internet. This isn't a new thing, people have been doing it for decades, and if they're prepared to do it for nothing, that's not something to complain about.

[Barlow]

  

2 hours ago, 2112 said:

It’s sad that they are also aping Beach Buddies. 

To be fair, Beach Buddies is only 'aping' what Castle Rushen High School were doing around beaches in the south, 1970s.

[Thefella]

20 minutes ago, The Bastard said:

Remember, it's not compulsory. If you want to sit on your lazy arse at home whinging about how everything was better in the 1950s, complaining about litter and how everything needs to be fixed without actually doing anything about it, you're still free to do so. On the other hand, there are lots of people who want to improve things around them, and don't mind actually putting in some effort to improve things, instead of just complaining about them on the Internet. This isn't a new thing, people have been doing it for decades, and if they're prepared to do it for nothing, that's not something to complain about.

But I do, do something about it already. I pay rates to my local authority to maintain the immediate environment I live in and I pay taxes to a government that employs a CEO who is supposedly in charge of infrastructure in the IOM who is supposedly responsible for much of this stuff and who probably earns twice what I earn. 

[x-in-man]

Anyone know what they do in Devon regards this sort of thing?

[Harry Lamb]

11 minutes ago, Barlow said:

  

To be fair, Beach Buddies is only 'aping' what Castle Rushen High School were doing around beaches in the south, 1970s.

I remember what some of them were doing!

[The Bastard]

5 minutes ago, Thefella said:

But I do, do something about it already. I pay rates to my local authority to maintain the immediate environment I live in and I pay taxes to a government that employs a CEO who is supposedly in charge of infrastructure in the IOM who is supposedly responsible for much of this stuff and who probably earns twice what I earn. 

Still limited in budget and resource though, which limits the capability to do things. Governments prioritise what they can do with a budget, and that isn't always things like maintaining legacy infrastructure, footpaths and tracks , clearing, painting and fixing. Volunteering extends that capability- things that don't necessarily get to the top of the budgeting list get attention, which benefits everyone.

[Thefella]

17 minutes ago, The Bastard said:

Still limited in budget and resource though, which limits the capability to do things. Governments prioritise what they can do with a budget, and that isn't always things like maintaining legacy infrastructure, footpaths and tracks , clearing, painting and fixing. Volunteering extends that capability- things that don't necessarily get to the top of the budgeting list get attention, which benefits everyone.

But they aren’t limited in budgets or resources are they? They are just very badly mis managed. If you want to crack on cleaning hedges for free in your own time when there’s someone on £120K paid for by your taxes in charge of the DOI who is paid to make sure the hedge rows are clean but fails in that duty it makes you a complete mug. 

[Non-Believer]

Let's not forget that the funding that used to be allocated to this work is now no longer available because, ultimately and broadly, it is being channelled into the salaries of current public servants and the pension gap of those who used to to do it.

This is where "cutbacks and savings" made are actually being diverted to at the end of all the convolutions and excuses because its requirement is prioritised, unassailable and beyond question.

So before anybody volunteers, regardless of willing and sense of community spirit, please remember that. Let's also see how many of those in receipt of said funds can be persuaded to volunteer.

Edited Sunday at 01:45 PM by Non-Believer
Typo

[Fred the shred]

The Corpy used to have its own team of painters who would paint railings etc anything really in between painting the housing stock but they got disbanded to save money, what foolishness , now everything is contracted out so there is no one to smarten the place up.    Same with the Highway Board as a previous poster has mentioned.    Outsourcing may have some value when it comes to pension responsibility but it leaves a vacuum when it comes to the small jobs which become big jobs when neglected.

[english zloty]

3 hours ago, FANDL said:

These are services that very highly paid people in a government that we can’t afford anymore are already paid to provide surely? Painting infrastructure, cutting hedges, basic maintenance of infrastructure. The sort of stuff we managed to do in the 1970s when we had absolutely no money. If volunteers are now being sought to do this work as the people paid to do it are failing to do so despite being a huge drain on the public purse where will it end?

Maybe we could take the Bill Dale model one step further and form “Government Buddies” a volunteer civil service that would do all the other things civil servants are paid to do but which they are miserably incompetent at delivering at the weekend for free? Then they could have even more paid time off pretending to do their jobs? 

Glad you used that photo. look no further than the condition of that building to see all you need to know. the railings are completely rusted through. the paint peeling etc...

[Two-lane]

"Gonna clean up the streets" - sounds like a quote from Taxi Driver. Or maybe John Wayne.