Recently we wrote about Grumpy Old Sods who either do, or ought to, take a stand against official stupidity, arrogance and greed. One of these stalwart old curmudgeons now needs our help. Here's why ...
Our Wanker this Week is Derek Hardy, who is a local government officer. What more reason could we need?
Derek is Policy Manager for Housing & Community Safety at North Dorset District Council, and he has threatened a local pensioner with an ASBO for daring to ask how the council is spending his council tax. The resident will be visited by the police and his council's anti-social behaviour officer, who will demand that he sign an "Acceptable Behaviour Contract" and stop pestering the council. If he refuses, or if he signs and then breaks the Contract, he may find himself in court facing a full-blown ASBO.
Now, it has to be admitted that 67-year-old John Hibbitt is a bit of an odd-ball. He lives alone in a remote cottage, has an income of £5,000 a year and has to fork out £1,300 in Council Tax for services he hardly uses. And he seems to have got something of a bee in his bonnet about mobile phones - he wants to know how much North Dorset District Council spends on them.
The council says it's told him, but he denies it. He has made repeated to calls to council officers who have become tired of his 'vexatious' inquiries. He says 'I initially wrote to the council and they did write back but I never got a straight answer. The language they used was evasive and unhelpful, so I wrote back and made some phone calls. I don't think I get good value for my council tax as I live in a small cottage in the middle of nowhere and hardly use my council services, but a large part of my income goes on the tax. I want to make sure it is being spent properly. I would admit to being forceful with officers, but in order to get a straight answer you have to be.'
Wanker Derek says 'Mr Hibbitt has been phoning the council day after day in the afternoons asking a response to a question which the council has already given answers in writing and verbally. His calls are repetitive and vexatious and costing council tax-payers of North Dorset a considerable amount of money through officer time.' He claims John phoned 200 times, though John disputes this.
The council says it has told Mr Hibbitt that its mobile phone bill for 2008/09 was £6,200. So that's all right then, John Hibbett, you vexatious man. The bastards are spending ALL of your Council Tax texting each other and sending pictures of their bottoms. So why are you pestering them?
John clearly has a bit of an obsession, but then who is Wanker Derek to decide what constitutes a reasonable and lawful need for information about our public services, and an unreasonable obsession? This is the worrying thing, you see: Wanker Derek is a local government officer and he thinks, and his employers think, and the government thinks, that this makes him important, that it gives him the right to make major decisions about people's lives.
But it doesn't. Local government is a public service, designed and intended for the benefit of the residents who pay for it. Wanker Derek needs to remember who it is that pays his wages (and his bloody great public service pension). It is no part of his job to discipline those who employ him. If John truly is behaving illegally, then it shouldn't be the local council that decides what to do about it. Their job is roads, drains, rubbish-collection and street-lights. There are other agencies, like the police and the CPS to do the really important stuff.
Unreasonable and cranky or not, John Hibbett is evidently a truly Grumpy Old Sod, so I think we should all muck in and give him some support. Old people are supposed to be unreasonable, aren't they? It's their job!
Derek Hardy's address is ...
North Dorset District Council
Nordon
Salisbury Road
Blandford Forum
Dorset DT11 7LL
His telephone number is 01258 484041 and his email address is dhardy@north-dorset.gov.uk.
Oh, and in case anyone is tempted to feel sorry for poor beleaguered Derek, just consider this: we don't know what his salary is with North Dorset District Council, but we're willing to bet that when he retires and becomes a Grumpy Old Sod himself, his pension will be about 8 times what John Hibbitt gets.
The GOS says: We've had an email from John Hibbitt. He's been sent a letter from North Dorset Council to say that they aren't going to take the matter further after all. See? Powerful stuff, a bit of ridicule in the right direction ...
either on this site or on the World Wide Web.
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