From The Daily Mail:
A hospital worker who rescued 60 fish from their ornamental pond when it was being drained has claimed he is facing prosecution and a £1,000 fine. Clive Roberts saved the fish in an act of mercy by scooping them into a bucket to move them to his own garden pond. The 58-year-old said officials at the Environment Agency told him he needed to go through red tape to get a formal licence to move the goldfish.
Mr Roberts, who has maintained the pond at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff for 12 years, said: 'It is ridiculous. The pond was being drained for maintenance work - they would have died if I hadn't got them out. The plan was to return them in six weeks when the work is finished. But I've been told I could be prosecuted - it seems a bit unfair when all I was trying to do was help. I look after the fish at the hospital and now I'm looking after them at my own home.'
The Environment Agency say it is illegal to remove fish from their habitat without permission. Officials say the law is designed to prevent the spread of lethal fish diseases. Mr Roberts, a window cleaner, has been told he should have applied for a licence to move the fish.
'This was an emergency,' he said. 'The fish were already distressed by the falling water levels when I took them out. I maintain the pond at the hospital - it is a simple plastic-lined ornamental pond. Do gardeners break the law whey they remove fish from their back garden pond to clean it out?'
The fish are now in his garden pond in Adamsdown, Cardiff. Mr Roberts is worried he may be interviewed under caution by Environment Agency officials...
OK, you might think, this is just getting silly, maybe Mr Roberts imagined it all or something. Let's see what the EA have to say for themselves...
An Environment Agency spokesman said: 'Mr Roberts has not been arrested or charged with any offence and will not be interviewed under caution. Moving fish short distances between garden ponds is not an offence, as it does not present a significant risk to the environment. The Environment Agency does not investigate such incidents. In situations where fish need to be moved at short notice we can offer help and advice, and would be happy to advise the hospital on the best way to maintain a healthy stock of fish.'
Jesus wept. Any sane person would have assumed that jumped up quangocrats like this wouldn't have the power to have people arrested; the fact that they use this in their defence is telling enough. As to 'offering help and advice', it is Mr Roberts' job to look after fish, it is what he does for a living (and it's not exactly rocket science), he doesn't need 'help and advice' from some political appointee.
But of course, in iDave's Big Society, this sort of thing will never happen again. Ever.
Diminished
1 hour ago
10 comments:
do you want more stupidity? Been testing a racing car with a mate today. I've been doin this for ooooo 30 years. On the way we went to fill up a couple of 20 L jerry cans with fuel. Oh no. Can't do that any more. Only allowed to buy 10L max! WTF!
Needless to say we found a filing station run by a persion from the India sub continent who didn't give a shit how much we put in the cans as long as we paid.
Thanks God for the minority immigrants.
There are some major issues in terms of the common people which are coming up. It depends on how far the Lib Dems prevent good things occurring.
Let's hope, eh.
And let's hope we stop hearing the cries of "There should be a law against it", swiftly followed by yet more petty legislation.
L, indeed :-) This is the sort of thing that grinds you down, when sooner or later you are genuinely unsure as to what is still allowed, or when you assume that whatever you do, you must be breaking some law or by-law or regulation.
For some, it reaches the point of 'Well, whatever I do is going to be wrong so I might as well do what I like.'
If you're going to get into trouble either way, why try?
MW - That's fascist lefties way - make sure that we're all 'guilty' of something whatever we do.
JH, the Lib Dems swing both ways, they are most likely to legalise cannabis but also the most likely to vote against things like patio heaters and all the other EU/Greenie pet hates.
Mrs R, we'll see, won't we? National Service for 16 year olds does not augur well...
LI, I've just got used to it (and have not yet reached that point). For example, the AA guy who jump-started my car told me to leave the engine running for 45 minutes - I asked him whether you were allowed to leave an engine running (with car parked in own drive) while I went back inside, he assured me it was (so I did). But a couple of days later I read about some council that was going to make it illegal to do so, or some chap got fined for it or something, so now I'm not so sure.
L, yup, the climate of fear - this all goes back to LI's seminal post, it's about instilling a climate of fear, nobody can focus on more important things (like relaxing or overthrowing the government) because they are too worried about being branded as a witch (or the kind of inconsiderate shit who would carry petrol around in 20 litre canisters - think of the children, or the environment, or something).
Mark, you used, overthrow the government and carrying 20l petrol canisters in the same paragraph. Shhhurely this is in breach of anti-terrorism legislation?
Anon, sorry. I meant a five gallon petrol canister.
He may not need advice from the political appointee but the political appointee needs to be able to dictate such "advice" to justify getting paid.
In earlier uhfree societies government insisted on dictating what you sang in Church, or said at party meetings but our present nanny state is barely at all because of idealogical commitment to anything & almost all to providing makework fot government parasites (who are more debilitating than fishy ones).
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