12 October - Old computer heading for the skip
There is not going to be a lot going on here over the weekend because I am
just about to tear this computer apart, salvage a couple of newish bits from it
and build a brand new one from components that arrived yesterday. This PC
has been intermittently unreliable for a year or more and there have been too many BSODs
(technical term) recently which a Windows reinstall has failed to cure. It will
probably take an hour or so to assemble the new beast and all weekend to
download updates and reinstall programs. Meanwhile, while clearing the deck for
the operation I came across some statistics on enviro-crime
which somehow got hidden under the pile of papers which is fast becoming my own personal
enviro-crime.
During
the financial year 2012/13 Bexley council removed 43 vehicles from the public highway.
No penalty notices were issued. Similarly no penalty notices were issued for graffiti,
probably because no one is silly enough to tag their name and address on them.
No penalty notices were issued for dog fouling because the council doesn’t get
involved in that sort of thing any more but ten people were fined for fly posting.
Fly tipping and littering attracted 154 penalty notices and 13 more were issued
to unlicensed waste carriers. Street traders received another 21.
In total £96,000 was
collected from the culprits. With our idiot government proposing
a 2,700% rise in the ’skip tax’ from next month it looks like the fly tipping problem can only get worse.