Old pallets too dangerous (From Stroud News and Journal)

Old pallets too dangerous

In December the SNJ launched a campaign to stamp out barmy ideas when we highlighted the story of a volunteer who wasn't allowed to plant spring bulbs to brighten up the town in case she cut herself.

The response from our readers was instant. Here we publish just one of ther many examples we received of bureaucracy gone bonkers.

In a fine example of ever increasing compensation culture, one reader reported how for this year's bonfire at the Ebley Fireworks only brand new pallets were burned.

"A mate of mine down in Dudbridge stored all the stuff in his yard beforehand," said Brian Billow from Uplands. "Every one of those pallets was perfect.

"He'd been told they weren't allowed to use any broken ones for health and safety reasons. "I thought he was having a laugh."

Mr Billow asked what would have happened if one got broken on the way to the fire and was told it would have had to have been abandoned. "There are broken pallets all over the place and the decent ones get recycled.

"They get stripped down and repaired and the damaged bits left over wouldn't be hard to come by. "It's crazy, unbelievable."

But Nigel Alltimes, organiser of the display, said there were good reasons for the pallet rule.

"It's very difficult to get insurance for firework displays," he said. "We have to do a risk assessment and look at absolutely everything.

"Broken pallets can have nails sticking out of them and the unbroken ones stack better, making a safer structure that's less likely to fall down.

"We build it quite high and people have to climb up it. "Also, we load the pallets with a forklift and you can't do that if they are broken."

Mr Billow said schools were also going potty. "We recently got a letter from my daughter's school saying the children couldn't take crisps and chocolate to school and had to take health food," he said.

"That's fine by me, because that's the same regime we'd have in our own house. "But it seems odd the schools are sending letters out telling us what to feed our children."

Mr Billow was also surprised by the spate of schools forbidding parents from taking cameras to nativity plays for fear of attracting paedophiles.

"Where on earth does that come from?" he said. "It's ridiculous."