What a load of rubbish
Cllr David Barnard, vice-chairman of Harting Parish Council, West Sussex, had received complaints about the bin, which was spilling dog faeces, among other things, into the stream. He was quoted as saying: “I spoke to someone from the department dealing with fly-tipping and he said – and I quote – ‘We don’t have anyone qualified to wear wellington boots’. I said: ‘But it’s only four inches deep’.”
The council then said its operatives would need ropes and harnesses to stop them being washed away.
It fell to three parish councillors to put on wellies and clear the mess themselves, which took took them 10 minutes.
Chichester is the same district council that has urged parish councils in its area to avoid phrases such as “man in the street”, “manning the switchboard” and “old woman” as well as the words Mrs, Miss, girl and lady because they are “inherently sexist”.
On the matter of the offending bin, a Chichester spokesman (oops!, they might see that as a sexist term) said: “We do have health and safety strategies for all members of staff that’s why there was an inspection to make sure that there were no safety issues.”
*Linguistic note: The word “man” when used in terms such as “spokesman”, “chairman” etc does not reflect maleness. It evidently comes from the old German word man, meaning “person” or “people”, rather than Mann, which refers to someone of the male gender.