Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
I'd be off to the small claims court. Error or not, they were still taking payment for a legitimately rented garage, and have a duty of care to their tenant.
£10,000 bike collection accidentally thrown away by council workmen
- Thread starter Accy cyclist
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
NorthernDave
Never used Über Member
- Location
- The real Northern Powerhouse
Call me a cynic, but could the return of the "erroneous" payment simply be an attempt to wriggle off the hook now they've been splashed all over the media?
Illaveago
Guru
- Location
- Chippenham,Wiltshire.
Get the Sheriffs in.
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
Very likely but will the council attempt to locate these 'contractors' and question them ?The workers would have taken those bikes without letting the council know there where bikes in there . As far as the council are concerned there where no bikes involved .
How do i know this .......
It wont be contractors it will be the people that work directly for the council .
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Does councils have any 'workmen' or women of their own any more? Ours contracts out pretty much everything.
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
Either way their foreman/line manager will know which team was sent to do that particular job and most/all vehicles that do that work have trackers fitted as standard to prevent abuse (sitting outside a pub for hours) my question is does anyone at the council have the will to find out who it was?
Ming the Merciless
There is no mercy
- Location
- Inside my skull
How can a council slap a 28 day notice on a garage they know they are renting out? Guess they didn't check their own records or the records are just shoot. Also do the council not realise that a bicycle is a single track vehicle?
OP
OP
Accy cyclist
Legendary Member
- Location
- The hills of Accrington
Yes,they'll have had a good idea that the bikes were worth quite a bit of money. If they'd been a pile of rusting metal that'd excuse their actions,but i bet they saw the pound signs before their eyes when they saw those vintage bikes. Going back to the workmen employed by the housing association here,they have the right
according to the housing association,to keep or dispose of any items left behind either intentionally or by mistake in one of the HA's properties when a resident moves out. It's a kind of a finders keepers attitude. To me it's theft. Those cups and saucers i mistakenly left behind were my grandma's from the 1920's. They weren't worth much in money terms but they were in sentimental value. The workman who "disposed" of them probably tried to sell them on E Bay or similar. I said to the warden in the former place that i wasn't happy and he should've handed them in to her. She had a blase attitude about it all,defending him saying he was in his right to do that. I wonder what he'd have done if i'd have left a bank card behind?
Pure speculation, but it could've that the garage looked abandoned because it'd been done over already by actual criminals, thereby looking abandoned to the council whose workers or contractors really did only find rubbish in it? That only requires administrative incompetence by the council to happen, and applying Occam's razor I claim my £5.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Bicycles aren't vehicles? The council must get a real shock every time they have to do some work on a cycle path.
Mistakes happen - they should MTFU, track down the crew that did the clearance, and establish what happened to the bikes, and try and make it right. This evasive bullpois, at the continuing expense of the public purse, is what is making this whole affair so unpalatable.
Mistakes happen - they should MTFU, track down the crew that did the clearance, and establish what happened to the bikes, and try and make it right. This evasive bullpois, at the continuing expense of the public purse, is what is making this whole affair so unpalatable.
gaijintendo
Veteran
- Location
- Scotchland
Hmm. If the people who would benefit the most from them being abandoned are the site developers, then Occam's Razor innit?: they were the thieves that stole the bikes to make it look abandoned so a free could innocently clear the abandoned garages.
Or maybe the simplest scenario is the one where you don't have add previous step?
Typical Daily Mail council bashing outrage story devoid of a lot of fact.
Garage sites are a real headache for councils and housing associations because of abuse of tenancies. I rent a site in a block of 8, 4 of which nobody ever accesses. Clearly somebody is paying the rent meanwhile cars are parked on the pavements.
The bike owners claim they told the council they had moved and according to them the council said that they could keep the garage. Council or Housing Associaton garages and garage sites are only available for residents of that council area and most council areas have a waiting list of prospective tenants. Had the bike owners given the council their new address, they would almost certainly have been told that they would have to relinquish the site and apply for another one in their new area (which perhaps they have done and are on a waiting list).
The wife of the couple was at pains to mention that her phone number hadn't changed. Any formal communications relating to the tenancy however would be carried out by post and the address on the council records would be the one on the original application form.
There is a procedure for the service of notices so that the persons potentially affected by the notice have the opportunity to resolve the matter before any action is taken. Clearly the bike owners hadn't been anywhere near the garage for the 28 days the notice was displayed, in fact the article doesn't mention when they found the bikes were gone so potentially it was quite a while since they had last been to the site.
Granted bikes are vehicles but these were not being used as such and were clearly being stored which was contrary to the the tenancy conditions.
From the comments on this board there does seem to be a lot of distrust about what the coucil is and isn't saying. In situations like this it is normal that an investigation will take place and if any dishonesty is found the disciplinary procedure will kick in. While this is going on nobody will make any comments.
Like everybody else I will be interested to hear the outcome but I'm not sure I can trust the Daily Mail to report it accurately.
Garage sites are a real headache for councils and housing associations because of abuse of tenancies. I rent a site in a block of 8, 4 of which nobody ever accesses. Clearly somebody is paying the rent meanwhile cars are parked on the pavements.
The bike owners claim they told the council they had moved and according to them the council said that they could keep the garage. Council or Housing Associaton garages and garage sites are only available for residents of that council area and most council areas have a waiting list of prospective tenants. Had the bike owners given the council their new address, they would almost certainly have been told that they would have to relinquish the site and apply for another one in their new area (which perhaps they have done and are on a waiting list).
The wife of the couple was at pains to mention that her phone number hadn't changed. Any formal communications relating to the tenancy however would be carried out by post and the address on the council records would be the one on the original application form.
There is a procedure for the service of notices so that the persons potentially affected by the notice have the opportunity to resolve the matter before any action is taken. Clearly the bike owners hadn't been anywhere near the garage for the 28 days the notice was displayed, in fact the article doesn't mention when they found the bikes were gone so potentially it was quite a while since they had last been to the site.
Granted bikes are vehicles but these were not being used as such and were clearly being stored which was contrary to the the tenancy conditions.
From the comments on this board there does seem to be a lot of distrust about what the coucil is and isn't saying. In situations like this it is normal that an investigation will take place and if any dishonesty is found the disciplinary procedure will kick in. While this is going on nobody will make any comments.
Like everybody else I will be interested to hear the outcome but I'm not sure I can trust the Daily Mail to report it accurately.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
The story is reported almost identically in several newspapers. Much as I'm not a fan of the Mail, they don't seem to be doing anything to add a bit of hysterical spice to the tale, unless you count their BIZZARE use of CAPITAL letters in the HEADLINE.
