Our new Wankers are Lambeth Borough Council. It's a collective award to the employees of Lambeth Borough Council, to the borough councillors who should guide and direct their work with wisdom and fairness, and especially to the professional officers who in any local authority are the real power, the people who make their own decisions and then habitually bully councillors into agreeing with them. It's remarkably easy to bully politicians when you, by virtue of your job, are in possession of all the facts, have thoroughly rehearsed the arguments and know just what you can get away with. Compared to you, even the savviest politicians are just amateurs.
So this is grand community Wanker Award, a group hug of Wankers, a sort of South London circle jerk. But richly deserved, as you'll see ...
Mendoza Stewart is a music producer, and at the age of 51 he felt that the time had come when he might enjoy some of the fruits of his success and bring one of his dreams to reality.
After a long search, he found what he was looking for. It was a car, a very special car. A very special car indeed - a 1972 Bristol 411, one of only 287 hand-made in aluminium by the West Country former aircraft manufacturer, a unique business which had no showrooms or dealerships and always dealt directly with its customers. When built it was the fastest four-seater in the world, with a V8 engine that gave it a 0-60 time of seven seconds and a top speed of 143mph.
In 1972 it was worth the (then) princely sum of £7,000. Mr.Stewart had to pay £30,000, and thought he'd got a bargain.
The GOS has only seen three Bristols, and
they were all brown. Funny colour for a car.
Mr.Stewart parked the car in a council-run car park near his son's flat in Camberwell. When he returned it was missing. "I was horrified," he said. "I thought it had been stolen and went to the police."
But it hadn't been stolen. Borough parking officials had noticed that although it was legally parked, it had no tax disc. They'd called the big lorry with the crane on the back, which picked the Bristol up and took it to the pound. There, someone - not the police, sadly - spotted it, but before Mr.Stewart could get there and rescue it, it had been lifted by ramming the jaws of a grab through its roof, and crushed.
What the officials had not seen - or had wilfully ignored, who knows? - was that in one corner of the windscreen was a "nil payment" sticker. Because the Bristol was a rare car of a certain age, it was exempt from all road tax.
Mr.Stewart was, naturally, devastated. A car like that comes along only once in every car-lover's lifetime. Lambeth Borough Council admitted their mistake … but that's as far as it went. Apologies are free. Compensation costs money.
All this happened in 2004, but three years later, despite confirmation from the DVLA that the car was not subject to road tax, Mr.Stewart has received not a penny from Lambeth Borough Council. Their spokesman says "Solicitors acting for Lambeth council have accepted breach of duty on behalf of their client. The council apologises to Mr Stewart. As the matter is currently being litigated, we cannot comment further at this time but we are working hard to resolve this case as soon as possible."
It's not hard to understand why the mistake happened in the first place. Council officials are notoriously stupid (the GOS is allowed to say that - he used to be one), overly-officious, pedantic, vicious, ill-educated jobsworths. It does, of course, beg the question why they took it upon themselves to take an interest in the tax status of a legally-parked car. Probably because they thought "The law gives us the power, so let's 'ave a laugh, innit?"
What is difficult to understand is why the Council have so far not forked out any money. Suppose Mr.Stewart had refused to pay his Council Tax for three years - would they have been as patient as he has? Why was it necessary for him to take expensive legal action which, assuming he wins, will cost their tax-payers far more than £30,000? Mind you, they seem to like being sued - try Googling "Lambeth borough council" and you'll find hundreds of references to court cases they've been involved in.
It seems they're a pretty awful council in general. Reports by the Audit Commission show …
2006 - Private sector housing - only fair
2006 - Housing management services - only fair
2006 - Supporting People - good!
2004 - Waste management - only fair
2004 - Cultural services - only fair
2004 - Private sector housing - poor
2003 - Rehousing and Allocations - performance was below average
2003 - Private Sector Services - poor
2002 - Housing Repairs and Maintenance - only fair
2002 - Regulatory Services and Enforcement - poor
2002 - Library Service - poor
2002 - Parks and Open Spaces - only fair
2001 - Corporate Anti Fraud - only fair
2001 - Waste Management and Recycling - only fair
2001 - Customer Services (Homelessness) - only fair
2001 - ICT and Information - only fair
2000 - Joint review - Lambeth London Borough Council "not serving people well"
"Not serving people well"? Crumbs, they can say that again.
Mind you, we don't have a monopoly on driver-victimisation. In the state of Victoria, Australia, residents can now settle scores by calling the police and ordering the seizure of someone's car. Hearsay evidence that a car may have had a "sustained loss of traction" is enough for police to seize a vehicle.
Since the so-called "anti-hoon" legislation was enacted in July last year, Victoria police have seized 925 cars and 109 motorcycles - an average of nearly five vehicles per day.
either on this site or on the World Wide Web.
This site created and maintained by PlainSite