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Badger on the bins

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AFTER trying to find any number of ways to avoid stating what is obvious to everybody about the utterances being evacuated from the mouths of the IPPG at the last Council. Badger decided to have a lie down with a good book and bask In some of the recent good weather. Badger. who is not a creature fond of taking risks. decided to leave his choke of reading material to chance and – with his head turned away -reached into his groaning bookshelves to pull out what he sincerely hoped would he a plum. After picking out Fifty Shades of Beige: the Bryn Parry Jones Story and Jamie Adams’ Bumper Book of Fun with Sums, Badger decided that dumb chance was just that and, with his eyes a-peeping through his paws. Badger reached into the more interesting section of his bookshelf. Imagine his pleasure when he pulled out a battered and weil-thumbed copy of Pembrokeshire Humour by Brian John.

seagulbadgBadger flicked through his volume, chortling away. when one story in particular gave him pause for thought. Summarising a joke is rather difficult, but Badger will have a go A restaurant in Tenby was famed for its rabbit pie. During the myxomatosis scourge, the quality of the pie declined until one customer asked the restaurateur: “Give us an honest answer an you using horse-meat in the pie mixture?’ Answering yes. the restaurateur explained that he was using half and half. “What?” the startled customer asked poking at his rapidly cooling pie. “filly-fifty?’ Replied the restaurateur “That’s right. One horse to one rabbit.” Nowadays, of Mane. such a restaurateur would he hauled off before the beaks for any number of heinous crimes against food hygiene and trading standards.

It is the passing off as one thing as another that exercises Badger. however. When Badger lifts up the crust of an Old Ratty’s Hedgehog and Gravy pie, he expects to find rich wont’ and weasel gravy seething around large chunks of prime hedgehog. Anything else would be just wrong. That is a basic consideration. Badger likes things that – as the advertising slogan goes – do what they say on the tin. Badger loves books. but he would be appalled to open a volume marked “de Bello Civili: Lucan” to discover it was many Katie Price’s Love, Lks & Lipstick. So. when the County Council says that experiments with new gull-proof black hags in Tenby mean that they might be rolled out around Pembrokeshire you have to look al it and think -good news”, But when one peels back the crust of this story, there is more hobbling underneath than you might expect. Pembrokeshire is a coastal county. There cannot be a settlement that is not Happy badgermore than twenty minutes from the sea, Pembrokeshire has lots and lots of sea birds. Lots and lots of those sea birds are gulls. At which point in the year since Pembrokeshire adopted this benighted box-ticking green policy on our behalf did the Council think gull-proof bags might be a good idea? No poop.

Mr Holmes! Since the Council decided upon its policy of collecting black bin hags from louses in Nmbrokeshite, the number of households taking reeking rubbish to the tip has increased. Badger has visited a few tips in the last year and traffic has steadily increased. All the council has done is force people who do 1104 have an airtight outbuilding in which to store rotting garbage to transport the stuff themselves. In addition, and Badger speaks from experience. vermin intrude into garages. sheds and even into homes to pull bin bags apart and get at their contents. The Council has simply shuffled the problem elsewhere and shuffled the money round in inventive ways to get away with it. Bins would he answer. Most councils provide them fur black bag waste. Pembrokeshire doesn’t.

And when one lifts up the  crust of the gull-proof bags story, it is not difficult to find out why that is the CMG. The Council claims: “Research has shown that the quantity of waste collected from households with % wheelie bins is significantly higher than households that use sacks only.” When the County Council introduced garden waste bins to replace green sacks. Tenby ‘s Town Council was most miffed at the thought of residents in the town’s narrow and hustling streets having to haul a wheelie bin through their house instead of a sack of rubbish. In addition, it is thought that tourists – bless their sunburnt little white socks • don’t want to see wheelie bins in the street. It is better to present a romantic. twee and cod-genteel image of Pembrokeshire life to tourists. perhaps. than an accurate picture of living communities. Badger has been told at different nines that it was the National Park Authority or Tenby Town Council that put the kyhosh on thereat of us getting wheelie bins to keep our homes rat-free.

Badger offers no opinion on the truthfulness or otherwise of the allegations about Tenhy’s burghers or the Park’s enforcers. If true, however. it is monstrous that those of us who live in areas less adventitiously endowed with otherwise superfluous photogenic attributes. have to lump it as the Council will not provide us with bins and others with bags. Being members of the INC. most Cabinet members are used to being surrounded by rats and other vemiin. But members of Pembrokeshire’s public. those who receive public services provided by the Council, deserve better than walking into a garage to find a rat half way into a can of tuna while maggots happily wave hello from an empty bacon packet. If. like Badger. you are unlucky enough to have a member of the IPPG as your Councillor all one can expect when you complain is the equivalent of a pat on the head and a soothing word that we’re all in the same how.

A year on and a household with children. more than four people in it, or with a baby is lumped in the same boat as the singleton at home with a couple of moggies, the collected works of Polly Toynbce. and self-righteousness for company. That is not right. It is not fair. And the policy is wrung. But – and take a deep breath readers – it is not all the 113136’s fault. Badger realises that this might come as a surprise to some readers – and even some IPPG councillors – but Badger wants to point the finger at the real culprits. The Welsh Government is forcing councils to cut down on black bag collections because it is run by urban quangocrats who have little or no idea of life outside their little magic circle of self-congratulatory chums. And certainly little idea of life north and west of the M4 corridor. They have no idea what it is like to see a week’s rubbish strewn across the street by a hungry fox. In place of incentives, the Welsh Government is using a bloody big stick to beat Council’s unto doing what it wants. it is doing this because it does not believe in local communities’ ability to manage themselves and meet their own needs. It is part of the culture that wants to drag power away from local democracy and force people to do what it thinks is for their own good. Rather like the Tenby restaurateur’s reeking pie, it seems to Badger that the upper crust is well out of it.

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Crime

Shoplifter sentenced for two Pembrokeshire thefts

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A SHOPLIFTER has appeared before magistrates after admitting stealing food and alcohol from two stores in Pembroke Dock

John Ashby, 37, was seen stealing two crates of San Miguel lager valued at £22 from B&M Bargains on July 8 while on Hallowe’en of this year he entered the Farm Foods store, and stole 12 food items valued at £80.61.

His solicitor, Michael Kellher, said that the offences were committed after Ashby relocated to Pembrokeshire from London, where he was employed as a bricklayer.

“He’s always been in employment, but since moving to Pembrokeshire he hasn’t been able to find a job,” he said.  “He hasn’t signed on for Universal Credit with the result that he stole the foodstuffs out of necessity.”

Meanwhile probation officer Julie Norman said that Ashby’s Halloween theft was committed after the defendant had been placed on a Community Order, imposed on September 24, for a previous shoplifting conviction.

“Having said that, he’s attended all appointments with the probation service,” she said.  “The Community Order was given following his first ever conviction, so he doesn’t trouble the courts on a regular basis.”

After asking to address the magistrates, Ashby apologised to the court for his behaviour.

“I’m not a bad person,” he said.  “I’ve worked since the age of 16, but I’m not excusing my behaviour.”

Ashby was fined £80 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £32 surcharge.  He must also pay £80.61 compensation to Farm Foods and £22 compensation to B&M.

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Crime

Internet dating app relationship turns sour for Pembrokeshire couple

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AN internet dating app relationship has resulted in a four-figure fine for a Pembrokeshire man after he refused to accept that a two-month relationship was over.

Gareth Thomas, 51, met Rachel Blundell on an unknown dating app in January of this year.

“The relationship lasted for seven or eight weeks, they had meals out together and the defendant stayed over at her property on a few occasions,” Crown Prosecutor Sian Vaughan told Haverfordwest magistrates this week.

“The relationship came to an end for whatever reason, but the defendant chose to continue sending her texts which were persistent and unwanted.”

In a victim impact statement read out to the court, Ms Blundell said that Thomas’s persistence left her feeling anxious.

“I’m unsure why he feels the need to contact me, because the relationship is over,” she said.

“He knows where I live and I’m afraid he’ll start causing issues with me.  I just want him to accept that the relationship is over and he’ll leave me alone because it makes me feel alarmed, harassed and distressed.  I’m scared about what he might do in the future.”

Thomas, of Gatehouse View, Pembroke, pleaded guilty to a charge of harassment without violence.  He was represented in court by Mr Michael Kelleher.

“He agrees that there was repeated contact with Ms Blundell, but there were no threats nor violence.”

Mr Kelleher went on to say that Thomas was confused following Ms Blundell’s decision to terminate the relationship.

“She claimed that her father had been taken ill, but then went onto another dating site, and my client couldn’t quite understand why.  He was confused, he didn’t know why it happened, and he was even optimistic that she’d have second thoughts and they could sort things out.  He was never once told not to contact her.”

Meanwhile probation officer Charmaine Fox said that Thomas believed the way in which Ms Blundell ended the relationship was ‘a lie’.

“In the past he’s been able to rekindle a relationship, and he thought this may happen again.  But things are very different in modern society, and the way people contact each other is now very different.”

Thomas was fined £833 and ordered to pay a £114 surcharge and £85 costs.  He was sentenced to a 12-month community order during which he must carry out 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.  He must also adhere to a 12-month restraining order preventing him from approaching and entering any address which Ms Blundell may reside in and not to enter any electronic data that refers directly to Ms Blundell.  

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Crime

Trainee plumber admits damaging vehicle whilst on a bender

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A TRAINEE plumber who consumed so much alcohol that ‘he didn’t know what he was doing’ has appeared before magistrates charged with interfering with two cars parked in Pembroke town centre.

In the early hours of October 6, police officers saw Ethan Pender, 20, sitting inside a Ford Fiesta parked in Main Street.

“The interior lights were on, so this naturally attracted the officers’ attention,” Crown Prosecution Sian Vaughan told Haverfordwest magistrates this week.

When the officers questioned Pender about what he was doing, he told them it was his parent’s vehicle, however a subsequent vehicle check confirmed it belonged to someone else residing in the area.

Pender, who is currently enrolled on a plumbing course at Pembrokeshire College, pleaded guilty to a similar charge of entering a parked BMW.

“The contents of a First Aid box were strewn all over the seats and the lock on the central console was broken,” continued Ms Vaughan. She confirmed that no items had been stolen from either vehicle.

However Pender’s solicitor Tom Lloyd, claimed the offences were committed following a drinking spree.

“He was extremely intoxicated and had got to the state where he couldn’t remember what he was doing,” he said.  “There was no targeting of any vehicles, and no damage was caused to them.”

But the magistrates failed to be swayed by Mr Lloyd’s mitigation.

“You’re claiming you were so drunk that you don’t remember what was going on, but we don’t buy that at all,” said the presiding magistrate.

As a result, magistrates requested an oral probation report prior to sentencing, however chief probation officer Julie Norman requested an adjournment as a result of Pender’s history of court orders and cautions.

“We consider him to be at high risk of reoffending,” said Ms Norman.

Sentencing was adjourned to November 26 and Pender was released on conditional bail, the conditions being that he obeys a daily curfew between 8pm and 7am and he lives and sleeps at his home address at Central Court, Milford Haven.

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