Jump to content

Girsecutting


petergear
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 164
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Surely the issue here is the minimum wage. Golders are offering minimum wage to foremen, so are hardly likely to be paying even that much to their ordinary workers who are, I understand, Eastern European.

 

Isn't this against the law?

 

Who do you complain to? Does anyone in the council have responsibility to check what Golders are paying their staff, or is this something to report to the Inland Revenue?

 

Minimum wage allows a lower rate of £3 for people under 18 and £4.25 for people 19 to 21yo. Ever wondered why some places employ a lot of young folk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Anonymous

At the rate the are cutting here, and if they have to do 10 cuts, then I calculate their last cut will be on30th November. :(

 

But I suppose they maybe take Global Warming into the equation.

 

By the way, nothing to do with Golders or local firms, but still on the subject of grass.

Why has the council stopped cutting the verges?? I assume it is to save money, but I fear it may cost lives.

Twice lately on narrow roads I have had a near miss. Once when I nearly ran into another car, and once when I almost didn't see kids playing on the verge.

Scared the crap out of me both times, and in both cases if the verge had been cut there would have been no problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is the verges not an environmental issue? I seem to mind that a couple of years ago it became illegal to pick wildflowers on the verges? ( Not that i would want to, well maybe once, but, ahem, i did have a lady friend in the car, honest so i did get some......erm, appreciation) So i canna see shredding them with a tractor being too acceptable? Or am i wrong on all counts?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Anonymous

Well when I was yonger I had many a lady friend in a car and I never called it pickin flowers :wink: .

It was never an environmental issue either,,,, perhaps a very essential issue :wink:

 

Seriously I can see that wild flowers are important, maybe, but life is a slightly higher issue. But I suppose if the council can use an environmental excuse to safe money then they will look good.

Anybody who thinks I am wrong just take a drive through the side roads this weekend..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

By the way, nothing to do with Golders or local firms, but still on the subject of grass.

Why has the council stopped cutting the verges?? I assume it is to save money, but I fear it may cost lives.

Twice lately on narrow roads I have had a near miss. Once when I nearly ran into another car, and once when I almost didn't see kids playing on the verge.

Scared the crap out of me both times, and in both cases if the verge had been cut there would have been no problem.

 

I would hope they'd be around literally anytime now to cut them, they've done them in the latter half of August the last year or so at least.

 

They were around and did the insides of corners that were assumedly "deemed"?!? by somebody a safety issue, I'm going to say around late June, but that's just a ballpark statement as I didn't really pay much attention to exactly when it was, just that they'd been done.

 

If they want to preseve the flooers I don't see why they needed to change when they cut them, just cut them higher. Say, leave a length of 4-6 inches or so standing, that length isn't going to be troublesome for road vision, and anything that grows taller is virtually all weeds and girse seed heads. Bulments, kecksies, tisels, cocksfit an' such hellery!

 

It's not that they can't, back in the day when the Cunningsburgh boys did them we a Fergie Fingerbar it was to the ground or nothing, but their fancy trimmer on a neb can get in to more shapes than an eel in a panic, and cut in them all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A quick reply on the subject of verges and wild flowers

 

As a grasscutter, I regularly receive the wrath of environmentalists regarding our 'murder' of wild flowers. I'm expecting the annual "in The Garden" article and accompanying letters to the Shetland Times sometime soon

 

The fact is, wild flowers thrive in short grass. (In a natural environment, areas of short grass are those grazed by animals or in soils too poor for grass to dominate)

 

Where ever practical, the cutting of verges is timed to allow the flowers to bloom and seed

 

Ever wondered why there are so many wild flowers on the regularly cut verges in the first place? :wink:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest Anonymous

Environmentalist Treehuggers who don't like verges cut should be taken to the Black Gaet Range and shot to save on the damage that broken clays may do to the natural habitat of the lesser pissed off shetlander. :twisted:

:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
The flower beds still haven't been touched yet. They should have 10 visits over the course of the summer. This is us well into August now. Great going.

 

I had been hassling Infrastructure Services about the flower beds for some months. No-one had done any weeding, nor pruning. It looked awful. The specification reads, "Unmulched beds shall be forked to a depth of 100mm and/or hoed and raked to...present a neat cultivated appearance."

 

The other day, instead of weeding the flower beds, Golders have strimmed the weeds :!: . They haven't even raked up the strimmed weeds, which are left in rotting piles (the spec reads "all weeds shall be cleared and disposed to an authorised disposal facility").

 

Why are the Powers That Be within Infrastructure Services letting them away with this?

 

This situation has become farcical.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
Guest Anonymous

Update,

The grass on our estate has now been cut 8 times. so if they are contracted for 10 cuts, and the grass will stop growing in the next week or so, they may get away with a 20% cut in service.

On this basis I assume that Golders will have a 20% reduction in their payment.

But of course because our useless council did a best value revue, they will no doubt be happy to pay golders the full amount, rather than admit they foot-sucked up yet again.

Perhaps councillors who give contracts to poor performing Sooth firms should ask where their votes will come from at the next election.

I for one will vote for any person rather than the standing councillor.

Rant, Rant,Rant :lol: :lol: :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At the very least the council should reduce their specification for grass cutting to the standard that they are actually going to accept, so that there is a level playing field for all tenderers. They should then enforce that standard. Local firms might have been able to outbid the incomers this year had they known that the council would accept a service much lower than that in the specification. Is there an ombudsman that could investigate this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

I would urge anyone who is unhappy with the state of maintenance of grassy areas or flower beds this year to please either email a councillor, or phone one. This way your complaint will not be "swept under the carpet" quite so easily.

 

Here's a list of councillor details, current on 12th March 2007 (and a link to the contact-details page of the SIC website, if anyone needs a more current list after, say, election-time - http://www.shetland.gov.uk/coins/member/_list.htm ):

 

Convener@sic.shetland.gov.uk Sandy Cluness, Lerwick North Central, 01595 695612

 

florence.grains@sic.shetland.gov.uk Sandsting, Aithsting & Weisdale, 01595 840243

 

brian.gregson@sic.shetland.gov.uk Unst & Fetlar, 01957 702350

 

Leonard.Groat@sic.shetland.gov.uk Lerwick North, 01595 692278

 

iris.hawkins@sic.shetland.gov.uk Scalloway, 01595 880579

 

barbara.cheyne@sic.shetland.gov.uk Delting East & Lunnasting, 01806 588272

 

eddie.knight@sic.shetland.gov.uk Lerwick Harbour & Bressay, 01595 693099 or 690796

 

Alistair.Inkster@sic.shetland.gov.uk Burra & Trondra, 01595 859697

 

Jim.H.Henry@sic.shetland.gov.uk Lerwick Sound, 01595 694621

 

Bill.Manson@sic.shetland.gov.uk Northmavine, Muckle Roe & Busta, 01806 522338

 

Gordon.Mitchell@sic.shetland.gov.uk Dunrossness, 01950 422338

 

John.Nicolson@sic.shetland.gov.uk Yell, 01595 880693

 

Drew.Ratter@sic.shetland.gov.uk Delting West, 01806 544295

 

frank.robertson@sic.shetland.gov.uk Walls, Sandness & Clousta, 01595 810283

 

josie.simpson@sic.shetland.gov.uk Whalsay & Skerries, 01806 566224

 

Tom.Stove@sic.shetland.gov.uk Cunningsburgh & Sandwick, 01950 431434

 

Willie.Tait@sic.shetland.gov.uk Sandwick, Bigton & Levenwick, 01950 422243

 

William Nicolson Stove, Lerwick Clickimin, 01595 694612

 

Leslie Angus, Lerwick South Central, 01595 692276

 

Cecil Eunson, Lerwick Breiwick, 01595 880115

 

Jim Irvine, Nesting, Whiteness, Girlsta & Gott, 01595 693777

 

Robert Geoffrey Feather, Lerwick Upper Sound, Gulberwick & Quarff, 01595 690896

 

 

Up-to-date list of councillors available here: http://www.shetland.gov.uk/coins/member/_list.htm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share


×
×
  • Create New...