@bullstuff2
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I was instrumental in exposing incompetence by a Council Planning Officer in my former District. When we bought the ex-NCB house in my old village, a kitchen extension had been passed by the PO and built. Within 12 months we began to smell a growing problem and eventually realised the floor was damp. Contacted insurance, a plumber inspected and revealed that there was a sewage drain and a cold water pipe under the extension. He also said that the extension should never have been built over these pipes. We had the deeds from the solicitor, read the plans and saw who passed it. The cost of repairs was almost £2,000 – in 1992. The insurance company was Direct Line and they took the Council PO to court, retrieving all they had paid us for the Claim and leaving our No Claims intact. Then we used a solicitor to eventually receive an out of court settlement from the Council, which paid for at least 50% of the work required to rectify the extension placement and also bring the house into the 20th Century, with internal refurbishment, gas central heating and double glazing.
I heard later that the Officer responsible had ‘moved upstairs’ before the cases were brought, and was given early retirement. Probably with a healthy sum.
We had a few problems with that house that might have cost us a lot of money. In 1997, whilst I was now working as a Legal Services clerical assistant at the County Hall, rats were found in the drains and Severn Trent sent a couple of Suits, then a camera team, to inspect all the drains behind our long row of ex-NCB properties. Meanwhile I began researching the estate, recalling something my dad had told me: my parents having been the 11th family to move into the village, in 1926. Nottingham City Library Reference section provided the information that the whole estate was originally built by Lord Newstead for the first generation of miners and families in the 1920’s. The waste and water from each dwelling to the waste and water mains, was to be the responsibility of Estate management In Perpetuity. I checked every document I could find: this had all been passed out of private ownership and into Nationalisation with the NCB. It had never been changed. Thanks to working in Legal Services, employed in Common Land and Borders, I was able to find and document the relevant legal paperwork. (In my own time, with permission.)
At the end of Severn Trent’s investigation, they produced a beautiful glossy booklet with all the pictures of broken sewer pipes and rat nests. They had carried out a cost estimate for each resident to pay for their own stretch of the drains and waterways. That is when I hit them with my own booklet, not as lovely but full of the facts they did not want to see. It must have cost them tens of thousands, due to their own plans quoting the very best in materials and methods.
That was very, very satisfying and I was a hero, missus and I couldn’t buy our own drinks anywhere in the village for a long time. I just love puncturing bureaucratic balloons!
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I'm out.I was pulling your leg Les, didn’t really believe you would contemplate a move. If you think though, that Planning Officials are any better over here, think again. In the 25+ years that my daughter has lived in her cottage, she has had battle after battle with the Planning department of the local Council.
She began with a ratbag husband who dumped her and our 8 month old grandson, then left, leaving her in debts of £thousands. She was working 3 jobs and bringing up our gson alone in a 200 year old cottage which had one coal fire, single glazed windows and 2 bedrooms. The first thing she did (whilst divorcing said ratbag) was fit double glazing and that was her first battle: they had to be a certain pattern, which was of course a lot more expensive. Then she faced battle No.2 when she worked to pay for fitting gas central heating, which had to be Calor gas as the village has no mains gas. They demanded that she had to have Oil CH, but she got legal help and won, with costs. Losing that battle upset them, because her battle No.3 was a conservatory: she won, with costs, on that one too. By now her female solicitor had lost patience with the PO and worked for no fee, she was so angry at them. Battle No.4 was the big one: a whole rebuild into a large 3 bed house. With our help and working very hard, she moved into a flat, by now with a partner and a daughter, whilst the house was rebuilt. Said partner has proved to be golden, working on the house in his spare time after his own work, with the local builder. The builder lived over the road and he was a big help with Planning, but the PO was always there with spanners to chuck into the works.
After all this, she now has a beautiful house that is about 250 metres off the main road and up into lovely countryside. An original purchase price of £85K, is now valued at £265K and I cannot help but have a little chuckle when I think of her ex, who has been now divorced twice and never paid a penny in mortgage payments or support to his son, yet managed to talk the court into giving him half the 85K when they divorced. She paid him that to get rid, and I would love to be the one to meet him someday and inform him of the present value. Daughter will be 50 next year and is the strongest person I know. I am very proud of her.
And the same PO allowed her only neighbour (a Parish Councillor)* to build a stonking great workshop behind her outbuilding, yet would not allow her to fit bedroom windows overlooking his home and field full of ducks, geese, chickens and dogs. I might add that some of his eggs mysteriously find their way into her larder occasionally. Guilty, but she won’t let me nick any chickens!
*It ain’t what you know, it’s who you know. But you would think that an (originally) single parent would have better treatment from officials, wouldn’t you? Not so.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.Ask “What is the nature/type of data on the disk? How many GB of data? Can you Email it?”
That should be enough to find out if he is genuine. If he tells you what type of data it is, you might recognise it. Did you wipe the disk properly before you sent it John?
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I'm out.Les, if you get a highly inflated price for your house, will you sell up and go back to Trentham?
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I'm out.Well the PM’s salary is obviously insufficient, Boris has a new job:
It must be true, it’s on the BBC: https://tinyurl.com/wc6u3r8
It’s enough to make a bloke check out his mental processes.
Who Nose what he thinks? Whatever you find up there Jezza, we don’t want any part of it.
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I'm out.I started to read that Graham, but my brain turned into jelly about halfway down.
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I'm out.Reading those FAQ’s Dave and Les, it seems to me that IoM citizens are given clearer, more simplified information than anything coming from Westminster. It also occurs to me that, if by some horrible misapprehension by voters the UK gets a Corbyn government, any departing EU citizens may be replaced by even more wealthy UK residents. The ones who wish to remain wealthy, that is, but are not quite wealthy enough to afford a Caribbean or Asian pad.
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I'm out.Any floods in Lincolnshire affect farming, especially on the flatlands, of which we have plenty! This farmer in particular will have his work cut out to make any profit from his fields next season.
Flood warnings all over our area:
Follow The A157 on this map https://tinyurl.com/sq4s8h7
– from the red spot on the left: that’s where I live. Past Castle Carlton, South Reston towards Withern. Just after ‘Main Road’, the A157 drops down a gradient towards the river called the Great Eau, which eventually reaches the sea. Most of the area of extensive farm fields to the right of this road is now flooded and sheep have had to be taken out of the fields after being increasingly forced away by rising water as the Eau burst its banks. Withern is where my son, daughter and families live and I drive that road regularly. “The Withern Lake” and “web footed sheep” is a local joke, as the Eau rises after every heavy rain, being at the bottom of a gradient, and sheep are always there. However, this is the highest it has ever risen and even the resident swans have gone. The older residents say that they have never seen it that high, and Sid next door to my son is over 90, lived there all his life. In the 1953 floods, a trickle of sea water reached Withern, but that was a tidal flood, totally different. I have told my kids to keep an eye on the flood warnings and move stuff upstairs if they have to.
Our county is also having to drain the East Midlands of course. The dykes are all full and some are overtopping. At least the Drainage Board is doing its job by regular digging out, even if the Environment Agency has not dredged the rivers properly.
Bob Williams, looking for a boat, Lincolnshire.
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I'm out.Lots of leaves in our Close here, several very mature trees, huge Willow across the way, four big old Sycamores, a Rowan and a Horse Chestnut. All the leaves wet through, plastered to the road and pavements. I used to collect them up for compost when I grew veg, but gave that up about 6 years ago. In one of the Sycamores is a big old wasp nest, they are almost all dead now, just the caretaker wasps looking after the thousands of larvae, each in a little hexagonal cell with a nice juicy paralysed insect, grub or caterpillar for food.
This morning a huge Bumble Bee was dead on the doormat, probably looking for warmth. Felt sorry, but didn’t try mouth to mouth though, it looked well dead.😚
I think the UK is floating on a huge aquifer by now, ground water must be high everywhere. No drought next year. The country needs wind and sun now to take off the top water. Some hopes! My gt-nephew up north of Aberdeen sent me a pic of snow, I told him to keep it up there. He and his kids are Arctic Williams’s: they will be out on the mountains at the weekend, on the MTB’s.
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I'm out.Shaun enjoyed that one JayCeeDee.
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I'm out.Believe me Steve, you don’t need to experience it! Ever.
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I'm out.Les I have an enlarged prostate and it’s at least once a night for a toilet visit, or swim! I always go straight back to sleep though. With prostate trouble your method does not work, it’s a couple of sheets of toilet paper and wait, then maybe wait some more. No good leaving before the system says it’s done!
I have a great memory of a 60’s music show starring the great but totally bonkers Wayne Fontana. Comes on in a white suit and hat, sings a few, tells stories about his life. He had a huge potbelly hanging over his belt and confessed that he hates having to wait so long over the toilet bowl, because he can no longer see when he’s finished.
Still has a great voice though.
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I'm out.I used to be OK in temperature extremes Nolan. Didn’t mind the Arctic during Army service in Norway, and earlier at 16 as a Junior deckhand I was making 10 day runs between Hull, Sweden and Norway. In December, January and February. I got used to Aden and Borneo/Malaysia, but nowadays I can’t stand the cold and anything over about 28ºc has me reaching for the big-brimmed cowboy hat the kids bought me. (“There you go dad, you get the horse for Christmas!”) I don’t know what they were trying to say… But I never get sunburned.
I just know when it’s cold and wet, my Arthur is worse. Just cold or just wet, is OK, only ‘normal’ lower pain. Reminds me of a former GP some years ago, discussing my gallstone pain: “On a scale of 1 to 10, how painful would you say it is?” ME: “43!”
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I'm out.No one told I was going to start leaking when I’m old!!! I’m only 40and bit are already failing. I don’t to leak as well. FFS.
Everybody leaks Steve, calm down la! Everybody’s skin leaks, just gets worse as we get older. Put the Puncture Repair kit away!
I leak a bit more than usual because * I’m an oldphart, * I take Statins, * I also have a Middle East bug in my Lymph system that makes it worse: I have to shower in stuff that surgeons use to scrub up, or I come out in boils due to infected lymph in hair follicles, of which I have zillions because I am a hairy bugga.
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I'm out.Can you keep it plugged in, but the power socket switched off? Tiny trickle of current keeps the BIOS battery charged, in case you put it away and forget it. Leave the PSU plug connected and switched on at the back of the desktop.
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I'm out.Should win, it won’t go to penalties and Boxheads only win on penalties.
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I'm out.Older desktops are just not making much John, that’s a fact. Donated my last to a wounded ex-serviceman 3 years ago, someone local told me he needed it to help him get started in a small business. Have you tried it in local Classifieds?
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I'm out.Could be the weather Nolan:
Although, as usual, medical scientists cannot agree on anything, there is evidence that the drop in barometric pressure before rain begins, has an influence:
All I know is the evidence of my own body, since the weather became colder and extremely wet. Hands, fingers, toes all aching – that’s the Rheumatoid. Shoulders, spine, neck all painful – that’s the osteo. The fun has been joined over the last couple of years by leg muscle and foot cramps, which can be agonising at times. I have had the pain in the palm side of my fingers for about as long as the leg and foot cramps. It’s the same thing: muscle cramp in the big hand muscle from the heel of the palm, to the pinkie finger.
My grandfather always said that the British created the biggest Empire ever known, as a result of looking for somewhere warmer and drier to live. If my Euro numbers ever come up, I will live in Andalusia most of the winter.
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I'm out.John Collect Plus lists these: ” Games consoles, laptops/computer monitors/mobile phones. ” I wouldn’t think desktops would be barred, it doesn’t mention them in ” Collect+ Prohibited items”
The maximum package size allowed is 60 x 50 x 50 cm. Many desktop cases will fit those dimensions, but remember the padding. My Coolermaster N30 is a full ATX case and would fit. I think you would have to register again with Collect+, then ask the question about desktop computers. Registering doesn’t cost, and even if you don’t use them for this job, you might need them some time.
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I'm out.All seems good Lee, hope you got some kip!
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