An E V A in London town - in the cold of course.

Good evening, I had a superb day running this new Certificate of Neighbourhood Management Course, Day 1, here in London. I have four candidates who are just lovely, all now working as a team and hopefully enjoying the banter from this strange "Jock" . In the course of the morning , despite the sleet and light snow ( in London - yes) we took ourselves off to conduct a practical EVA ( Environmental visual audit) in the streets around the hotel and the Covent Garden Market . Very interesting as we saw our first electric Smart car , plugged into a public supply ; then in Covent garden after listening to a couple of young lady opera singer (busking) the team spotted the paella man - what a size his frier was !!, but was he complying with current H & S Regs with regard to the preparation of hot food in public places !! - but we were only asking . However,
round the corner we mat an "enforcement officer" full regalia, machine emitting steam from excessive use, etc - sticking tickets on motors like it was going out of fashion BUT BUT and massive Q mark, why was the car still sitting there with a parking tickets on it and an expired tax disc from last year ? in a city which is supposed to be so conscious of terrorist attacks, etc, how can a vehicle like this be left in this state for six months - somewhere down the line there is a total neglect of duty, and if the so called " enforcement officers " were doing their job the windscreen should have been plastered with tickets - NO No Way, the car should have been lifted and through a crusher months ago. Do these agencies never talk to one and other ? Was DVLA contacted, and with a city Police Station no more than 300 yards away- have any of these"Jobsworths" even called the police.

Onwards we strode, all perished with the cold, but there was the real proper London bus, complete with the conductor on the platform - it is the only way to stop buses causes congestion - get the punters in and then take their money on the move. We used to have "Honest John" on our bus from Edinburgh to Balerno all those years ago, he was eventually fired for dinging his bell as folks were getting on and a couple fell off the rear platform. Me, i suffered horribly from travel sickness so it was not unusual for me to either sit on the back seat nearest the platform or if here was no seat, to stand on the platform all the way out of town.

Final shot of this lot is of the phone box which obviously suffered ever so slightly from impact damage, just hope that no one was phoning their Granny in Australia when it happened.

Time now to hit the streets of London Town - the adventures of PC will continue later