Crime & Punishment

I have now completed 38 hours of community service.

Do you all feel safer in your beds at night?

So far I have helped;

Clear an area of allotments.
Clear some waste ground.
Creosote a fence.
Trim back an overgrown passageway. (Fnarr Fnarr)
Trimmed another overgrown passageway.

And I've become the face of community service in Ealing. Well, not the face so much as the back of the head of community service in Ealing. There was a bit of a jaunt for the powers that be as last week was some incredibly boring anniversary and they needed some photos. There were 15 of us to choose from but, what a surprise, they chose to use the two white guys rather than the 13 black and asians. It did however give me the chance to explain quite forcibly to the powers our views on the work.

Although I am doing pretty much manual stuff everytime there are two types. One givers some level of "job satisfaction", the other doesn't. When we cleared allotment 1 I was talking to the guy who runs these sites for the council. He explained that when the allotment is finally opened the income will be £350 per year. We had 15 of us there and thus provided the equivalent of about £1000 of labour. He couldn't aford to do this if we weren't available and thus you do feel as though it will make a difference.

Last week when we cleared the alleyway, much of the ground level overgrowth was in front of the residents gasrage doors. It didn't take much cutting back or removal but they obviously couldn't be arsed to do it themselves. I don't see why we should tidy up after residents who have caused the problem in the first place.

It was basically those two points I put across to the local councillor and the Head of the Community Service. Suprised I didn't get another 100 hours for my cheek!