Perks

I have many things which have gained a new lease of useful and productive life by, in the past, being found/recovered/acquired, from the Portishead council yard at Albert Road, and at the quarry at Valley Road. Metals for model engineering were obtained with the permission of the staff present, and in return, items of my own that were still useful - but not to me - were donated for the staff to deal with, in the knowledge that they would sell them on, a process that I believe has been known historically as 'totting' - one of the the perks for the waste-disposal staff. The nonsense displayed by the pronouncements by a 'person' from the North Somerset Council are evidence of the health and safety culture. The H stands for "Horror of being sued", and the S for "Sheer and utter stupidity, through total lack of common sense". The basic premise of the law of contract in England, is 'Caveat Emptor' - i.e. let the buyer beware.Anything can be sold at a car boot sale - it is the buyer's responsibility to ensure the goods are what he/she wants and are, or maybe, suitable for that purpose, not the seller's.The same applies if the goods are advertised in the small sales columns in a newspaper.The same applies if one sells goods at a garage, table or jumble sale. There is no reference, implicit or explicit as to the goods suitability for any purpose - their state is 'as seen'. If the council 'person' thinks it is illegal for the goods to be retaken or sold from within the council tip, then there is nothing to stop anyone sitting outside the gate of the tip, and selling or giving them to any passer-by. Recycling is what we are being exhorted to do on every hand - except, apparently, if North Somerset have anything to do with it - unless, of course, if it concerns things that can be crammed into their green boxes or green bags. The lunatics are in charge of the asylum ...! D E Hockin - Lower Down Road, Portishead