Council tree squad overmanned?

[Yorkshireman]

One of them should have been an arboriculturalist...

 

[Dean Lofthouse]

Depends on the council I suppose, I work with our council boys quite a lot and they work damned hard for their money.

[Dr.Green]

council workers now work harder and are getting the piss taken out of them by them running it , well , sort of

 

my dad worked 28 years doing refuse wagon driving and gritter in winter - in winter he would drink vodka at work , sleep in the cab in the country roads , they would take vhs's in and make sunday dinners at work

 

past few years they have had to work thou- so he took his retierment cos he knew ' the goods times' had gone haha and came to work with me - he's never sweated as much

[delabodge]

Heres someones take on Britain Today

 

brilliant,,,made me tickle,,:lol:

[Goaty]

When they come to collect trees for planting it bewilders us.

 

Four blokes minimum, at least 1 vehicle. To collect 4 rootballed trees.

 

We load them, then they take a 20 minute break read papers , coffee. Say they will be back for more in the afternoon, often never make it.

 

I know a tree officer on same council started on the tools, they keep giving him more stress, responsibility. Same pay. I mentioned about "The Lads"

 

His reply there are more waiting on site and a digger to dig the holes.

So...

 

Minimum 4 blokes

1 Digger

Minimum 2 vans/trucks.

 

All wear chainsaw protective gear to keep warm all the time and possibly image?

 

When sap starts to rise in spring. They get commercial companies in to help:confused1:

[jose]

had 2 council guys near me worked all day to raise 1 tree and cut some bushes.

I swear i would have taken us 1 hr to do.

 

guy was very nice but even admitted himself to feeling like it was a waste. He wasnt allowed any power tools even though he had tickets ( all that was needed was a hedge cutter and a pole saw.

 

They then spent another day picking it all up. Asked him why they dint chip it as i know the council has a lovely great chipper ( large vemeer). His response? His boss was the only one allowed to tow it and by his own admission couldnt be bothered to get it out of the yard.

 

Result- Paying shorts down the road to process it, to which the council then buy back the mulch to use on its beddings.

 

Was gob smacked!

[Dom]

I think every contract is different. I used to work for an AA approved firm doing a council contract, was there for 6 months, and probably averaged about 2 days worth of work a week. Most of the time was spent driving around, sunbathing, reading papers, bacon sarnies etc. The TOs didn't seem to be giving us enough work, and we were obliged to be there 5 days a week. It got quite dull in the end, and felt a bit sorry for the other lads on the other busier contracts, who actually sweated for their money..

[Matthew Arnold]

Last winter we were doing alot of tree work on a stretch of old railway line which was already opened up to the public. The homeowners along the stretch where we were taking the trees out were very happy and brought many cups of tea and several rounds of cakes and bacon butties. What spoilt it was 3 people who were part of the parish council. They didn't want the trees felled because "they were part of the landscape and were planted at the time of Prince Edward. The majority of the trees were 20-40 year old scabby, squirrel damaged Sycamores and some sizeable Ash stools (8 stems or more). We had one member of the public have a monumental go at us because there was 3 different vans down there (2 tree/arb team vans and our 4x4). There were two climbers, 4 groundies and 4 draggers to the massive fire we had to get rid of the. Apparently it was far too many people and vehicles for the job in hand and it was a gross waste of tax payers money felling perfectly healthy trees and paying for 3 vans to drive down a track used by members of the public. We had the head from the arb team and the countryside boss and both of them spoke to the member of the public on site. After the gent left the bosses came over and said crack on and only stop if we get physically abused. The same people which moaned are very happy because they don;t have to wear wellies to walk down the surfaced path anymore. Even though it was only about 300 metres of trees to come out would you say we were over manned for the job?

[Tom D]

Not all LA guys are lazy, I have met some grafters...

 

The whole ethos and attitude is totally different: I was in a pre start meeting with an LA the other day, we got to talking about how much they had spent on tree work in the last 12 months...about £250k. Two of the guys round the table had run LA tree teams in the past and I asked them how much it would cost to run a 4 man squad. The answer £300k!!

 

I can do that for about £150K... That says it all really.

[RobArb]

I work for a council and i know i ain't lazy... i also don't get paid enough but i don't do it for the love of money:lol:

 

We have 3 teams of 3 working in Salford, ok 1 team IS lazy, but thank god its not mine:thumbup: We get minimal equipment, we even had to beg borrow and plead head office for a tracked chipper yesterday other wise it was a 600m drag!!