A group of pensioners have had to abandon their weekly game of cards after being charged £250 to cover the cost of health and safety.
The 14 whist players - aged between 70 and 90 - met every Friday for almost 10 years in a communal room at a sheltered housing complex in Norfolk.
But officials at Neville Court, in Heacham, told the group they must pay liability insurance for all those who did not live at the complex before they could meet again.
If I were ever in charge of this country, I'd arrange for these nameless "officials" to be left in the stocks for a month with copious quantities of rotten eggs and tomatoes and large stones easily to hand.
Cunts.
7 comments:
Greetings O.
You're too soft. They should be roped to stout wooden frames and used for bayonet practice.
Failing that, ship them to the sandpit, strap them to the outside of vehicles and use them as pink kevlar.
Unfortunately, the reality is that if you have 70-90 year old non-residents in and one of them slips (possibly if they've had a little accident in the toilet), you can be abso-bloody-lutely certain that they or their relatives will be in with a compo claim - and they will get it, too, if they can show the slightest lack of lighting (like a failed bulb), a smear of water or failure on the part of the home operators to provide mobility assistants and be psychic. Even if they don't get it, just handling the claim, even if rebutted, costs a couple of hundred quid.
It is surprising that the home doesn't have public liability insurance already - as the public visit their relations - but the groups I have worked with carry their own insurance anyway. Contrary to what the residents (and the Telegraph) appear to think, this is precisely what you need to do if you are gathering members of the public in one place and don't want to end up personally liable for any accidents.
Yes, the H&S legislation is to blame, but the compensation culture which unfairly distributes risk is also to blame. It's not H&S regulations alone - it's tort law. The day I meet an old person saying 'I'm not putting in a claim, it was my own fault for not looking where I was going' I will have more sympathy for the residents of the home. Until then, the officials are doing precisely what good practice requires them to do - i.e. ask for groups to be insured or else refuse to pick up the legal liability for activity. It isn't clear why the public or the home operators should pick up the insurance premium for a non-resident's social life, although they could presumably consolidate it in to the fees the residents pay - which would trigger endless arguments about how old Mr Grace never uses the community room, so why does he have to pay in to the pot.
The quote of £250 may be high, but assuming it was split over the 7 non-resident players, that is £35.71 a year each, or less that £1 a week, meaning that a rise in entry fee from £1.50 to £2.50 would cover it, based on them playing for 36 weeks out of 52. If the hall paid the insurance upfront, it could recover that from the door.
Heacham (just between Kings Lynn and the Sandringham estate) is not a poverty stricken area. Is it reasonable that a party of pensioners who enjoy each other's company cannot find an extra £1 a week per non-resident to cover the real costs of their weekly meetings? £2.50 to cover hire and insurance for an evening seems like a good deal and is still approximately the price of a pint of beer. Price comparison: Kings Lynn council hire out a card room to voluntary groups at a cost of £18 per hour.
The home has been tactless and unhelpful, but they haven't banned anybody from playing cards; they have merely required the players to pay the modest going rate for the facility, as would anybody else hiring the room for an evening.
H & S legislation, compensation culture.
Cause and effect perhaps?
Whilst I agree with your sentiments that these faceless wonders should be strung up by their short and curlies, playing devils advocate I wonder how we would view the following article if health and safety wasn't an issue:
Heacham County Council was shocked and dismayed as it was ordered by the civil courts to pay £100,000 to the relatives of an elderly gentleman who fell and broke his hip whilst attending a gathering at a sheltered housing complex run by the council.
John Smith, a previously fit 82 year old world war 2 veteran had been attending a gathering to play Whist with friends at the complex for over 15 years, cut short this weekend when he fell over some derbis left by another resident; Heacham County Council was shocked to hear that as no liability insurance had been bought for the premises it was liable for the damages incured.
Judge Pinkleton, presiding over this civil action, decided against long term remuneration of £10,000 a year, despite Mr. Smiths family now having to provide round-the-clock care; Mr Smith's injuries have meant he has had to sell his family home he has lived in independantly for the last 50 years as he is unable to walk unassisted, and move in with his Daughter and Son in law, Vera and Mike Taylor.
The money will cover conversions to their 3 bedroom home enabling some independance for Mr. Smith.
You can see this happening admit it.
NBC,
H & S legislation, compensation culture.
Cause and effect perhaps?
Cyclical effects methinks; you get a glut of lawyers seeing a lot of free state money for use on these ridiculous compensation claims and they promote the "no-win, no-fee" culture. As a result councils then "protect" themselves by banning everything that hasn't had a proper health and safety assessment.
killemallletgodsortemout,
The current, past and future troughing piggies in Westmonster cannot change the elf-n-safety nonsense; this is entirely EU-based directive insanity.
I can see why the Care Home wanted to be covered because ambulance chasing scumbag lawyers will eat you alive in court. That's why one of my favourite sayings is "Come the revolution, all the lawyers are going to be swinging from lamp posts!". Wasn't it Mussolini who killed a lot of lawyers when he came to power? Not totally bad I suppose.....
I do agree that compensation culture is the real thief here, but I'd argue that elfin safety gave rise to compensation culture.
Either way, the odious pair of shites need to fuck off and people need to reclaim responsibility for their lives.
Cunts.
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