WARNING: Jobsworth At Work
The young woman in the photograph below is Richmond resident Burcu Yesilyurt, and as you can see, she is holding a plastic cup of drink, probably coffee. We can be fairly certain this drink is coffee because earlier this month she was holding a cup of coffee while waiting for a bus, and having drunk most of it, to avoid spilling it on the bus, she tipped the remainder down a drain. What happened next was surreal.
She was pounced on by three so-called enforcement officers equipped with bodycams who told her she had committed an offence under Section 33 of the Environmental Protection Act, 1990 which makes it an offence to “deposit or dispose of waste in a way likely to pollute land or water, including pouring liquids into street drains.”
At least, that is the wording on the BBC website, but if you consult the relevant section of the actual legislation (linked above) there is no mention of drains.
Clearly, this legislation concerns pollution, which might include fast food outlets pouring used oil into drains, something that could cause a problem. The lady was not amused when these three jobsworths said she was being fined £150. Most women would have told them to take a hike, if not that politely, but the lady in question is clearly rather timid, and paid up.
Fortunately, the madness didn’t end there, she, or someone, made sure this act of bureaucratic tyranny was well publicised. On October 22, the BBC website reported on it, Richmond Council thought better of the matter, cancelling the fine forthwith. The article received well over five thousand comments, none of them appearing to take the side of these three jobsworths.
Sadly, this is far from an isolated case. Hearing of it, retired police detective turned TV pundit Peter Bleksley told viewers how he had been fined £100 by a jobsworth at Waterloo Station. His “crime” was to throw a cigarette down a drain having failed to find a rubbish bin.
The biggest terrorist menace in London is now Islamists, but within living memory it was the IRA, and on account of their terrorist activity in London and elsewhere, many rubbish bins were removed. Where are people supposed to deposit sweet wrappers and such if there are no bins?
Jobsworths aside, there is evidence that goons like these so-called enforcement officers are being used by councils to raise money more than to protect the environment.
Earlier this month, a YouTube video showed one of them trying to fine an old man for dropping a peanut while he was sitting at a table outside a café. He was made of stronger stuff than Burcu Yesilyurt and told this goon where to go. So-called enforcement officers have no powers of arrest, no more so than the average citizen, and no real authority. They do though appear to be on some sort of bonus scheme, that and their generally authoritarian personalities is probably why they are so bellicose.