Accrington Web - Because they're worth it...?

Accrington Web (https://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/index.php)

- General Chat (https://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f69/)

- - Because they're worth it...? (https://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f69/because-theyre-worth-it-60811.html)

Because they're worth it...?

Two stories in the OBS this week, week have caught my attention and stirred my indignation. The first.....

Teens on Rishton mill roof in three-hour stand-off with police | Accrington Observer - menmedia.co.uk

makes me ask why this pair, or their parents, were not charged for the considerable cost of the operation to get them down from the roof. I am also moved to wonder what on earth the Police were thinking of in ordering a Helicopter, A cherry picker, a fire appliance with an aerial ladder and a trained negotiator into Rishton to deal with a couple of brain-dead eejits on a roof? Everybody knows all you have to do is wave a couple of E's around and they would have been down quicker than you could have said "you're nicked Sunshine". Money, it seems, especially when it comes from the taxpayer, is no object when the boys in blue decide they want a change from the usual, run of the mill, catching real criminals sort of day.

The second story, following on from the first, concerns Council Tax. At the last minute Lancashire Constabulary have decided to demand a 2.5% increase in their share of your Council Tax.

Here's the story....

Anger over decision to increase police precept by 2.5 per cent | Accrington Observer - menmedia.co.uk

It's almost enough to bring tears to your eyes isn't it? The thought of our poor boys having to make do and mend and feeeling just awful that the cruel government won't allow them to spend as much as they think they should to keep us all safe. They are so brave. I can hardly live with myself for having to divulge the next bit of my sorry tale...

But don't worry, I think I can manage to keep the tears back, just.

As some of you know I operate a business in Blackpool. Naturally, being a curious sort, I keep my eye on the local press; I find it pays to keep abreast. It appears that in the early 1970's Blackpool Borough Council had the wizzard wheeze of knocking down the Central Station and turning the area into a massive car park. Along with that they also thought it would be a pretty good idea to centralise all the Police and Court buildings in a massive new tower block. All shiny new, brutally concrete...

.... and fatally flawed.

Thirty years on, after the car park bit of the construction had to be demolished for safety reasons there are now calls for the remaining tower block to be demolished for the same reason - concrete cancer.

The Council have recently saddled local taxpayers with a £225 Million scheme to create a shiny new business district at the top of Talbot Road, The so called Talbot Gateway. It was to have revitalised the town; according to their blurb. Only fly in the ointment was that businesses didn't fancy investing in Blackpool or in it's new business district.

Undeterred by the lack of interest the council have decided to shift all their offices to one part of the scheme, hold off building a new transport hub and were going to get the police to leave their old unsafe building and come and join them at at a cost of £55 MIllion.

Then there was a change of Government and all of a sudden Lancashire Constabulary was faced with having to make savings. The New Talbot HQ would not go ahead. Cue despondancy all round.

Then, Chief Constable Steve Finnigan, had a root round in the back of his desk drawer and, lo and behold, has been able to come up with a bit of cash he had forgotten was there.
Oddly, eerily, spookily, it is the exact sum he claims in the Observer article would be the funding gap if he accepted the governments grant not to raise his share of Council Tax.
£5 Million quid is to be put down by Lancashire Constabulary as a first payment for their Brand Spanking New Talbot HQ, and the same amount for the next four years.

Not only are you paying this bunch of wasters to arse about rescuing idiots from rooftops and spend most of the rest of their time sleeping in laybyes, but you are also going to be paying for the Blackpool Branch to learn to live in a style more in keeping with their important role in society.

Feel grateful? I know I do:mad:

.