Wednesday 8 January 2014

Bin Lids Need No Wittgenstein!

Bury Bin Men:  Springtime for Bluebottles to Skidding on Ice!

IF MR. Neil S. Long, assistant director of (Operations) at Bradley Fold Waste Depot Bury, had difficulty grasping the breeding habits of bluebottles and the incubation of maggots in the summer months; he is even more at a loss when it comes to fathoming the features of raised bin lids and PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) in winter.  In his very humble judgement Mr Long has determined that 'it was established that the basis of [a] grievance', among other things,  was:

*   You [the union, Unite] believe that a clear Policy regarding bin lids as identified by the HSE (Health & Safety Executive) should be issued.

*   You [the union, Unite] believe that current arrangements for the collection and provision of PPE should be reviewed/ revised.

Well then!  We being simple toiling bin men may well ask ourselves what is the logical alternative to what Mr. Long calls 'a clear Policy regarding bin lids'?

i)   Should Bury MBC proclaim 'an unclear bin Policy'?

ii)  Ought  Bury MBC, in its wisdom, go for 'an obscure or semi-clear bin Policy'?

iii)  Perhaps Bury MBC might have 'no bin Policy whatsoever'?

The permutations would baffle even the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, indeed this business of  bin lid health and safety at Bradley Fold is becoming worse than grasping a proposition by Wittgenstein.  The pondering and perusing at Bury of the 'safe' and 'unsafe' Policy and its 'clear' and 'unclear' aspects of bin lids is hard - as Wittgenstein said 'Denken ist schwer!' ('thinking is hard') but he also told one of his students that working on a 'building site is harder!'  Mr. Long and his panel of experts including Glen Stuart, Head of Waste Management at Bradley Fold, are no doubt thinking hard now about the health and safety aspects of bin lids, even as you dear reader take in these words, meanwhile the Bury bin men will be pushing wheelie-bins into the winter gales on Bolton Road of on a council estate in Whitefield. 

You won't be surprised, dear reader, then that in all his hard thinking and deliberations it will take Mr. Neil S. Long, Director of Operations at Bradley Fold Bury, from the 17th, December 2013 until the 21st, February 2014, before he can 'respond fully to both these issues (of bin lids and PPE)'.

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