Wednesday - August 13, 2008

Card-playing pensioners landed with £250 health and safety bill .

EVERYTHING here is Elf ‘n’ Safety.  Okay, Health and Safety. There. Said properly. But any way I say it, it’s spelled thus >>> royal pain in the arse.
Just ask any Brit.

So here are these older retired folks getting together for a game of cards. Simple enuff you might think. Not very complicated. Right? Ah well. Till gummint gets involved.
Generally as all know, gummints are made up of lots of bureaucrats with little or nothing to do. Which is really quite frustrating when you need to look busy to justify your pay packet to the people who are being robbed blind to pay the bill.  But never mind, given enough time and thought these “crats” can always come up with things for the taxpayer to do or else not do, all according to the whim of those in power.  Wouldn’t be so awfully bad if they had a real sense of humor. Like Macker and Drew for two zany examples.  Tis better to be tickled to death then stabbed if you’re gonna get screwed. (financially speaking.) But that isn’t quite the way it works over here.

Card-playing pensioners landed with £250 health and safety bill
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 13/08/2008

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.

Tom Coulstock, from Hunstanton, said the cheapest insurance the group could find was £250 a year, which would have to be paid in addition to the £1.50 a head entrance fee.

Just six of the players are residents and as none of the group can afford to pay the charge, the card-lovers have been forced to disband and re-locate elsewhere.

Freebridge Community Housing (FCH), which runs Neville Court which comprises 20 flats, said the insurance was “common practice”.

But player Bill Corbett, who lives nearby, said: “Perhaps they think that pensioners will attack one another with the playing cards? The situation is so stupid its laughable.

“Freebridge claim the insurance is a matter of course but you can’t tell me every group meeting needs public liability insurance.

“They are just trying to cover their own backs. We should not have to pay for that.”

Mr Corbett, 86, said the game took up five tables in a corner of the communal room and insisted there had never been any trouble in the club’s eight year history.

He said the six residents who live at the home find it hard to travel outside the premises.

“They don’t understand why they can’t have their friends over to play cards,” he said.

“It’s health and safety gone mad and it is short-sighted of Freebridge.”

Mr Coulstock said: “It’s a farce. If they offer room hire they should have the insurance cover in place for the service they offer.

“We won’t be using the room in the future. We’ll find somewhere that already has the insurance in place.”

Another player, who did not wish to be named, added: “It’s disgusting that Freebridge is more concerned about making sure no-one could ever sue them than ensuring their residents have a good quality of living.

“How on earth is someone going to injure themselves whilst playing cards?”

The card players were told they had been banned from the premises after their game on August 1.

Tony Hall, chief executive of FCH, said it was standard procedure to ensure members of the public using their facilities were insured.

“Freebridge Community Housing actively promotes the use of its community rooms as the social interaction of its elderly residents and people from the local community is a positive contribution to their lives,” he said.

“It is general practice that any room hire includes a requirement for insurance.

“This can be covered by the group, club insurance or could form part of the hire cost. Freebridge charges a nominal hire charge but then require individuals to organise their own insurance.

“The requirement has been in place for many years, but as Freebridge has recently updated the hire agreement it is checking that groups have their own insurance in place.

“I am surprised Mr Corbett has been quoted £250 for insurance and Freebridge will make enquiries with our own insurance company to see if alternative quotes are more competitive.”

FCH owns and manages around 7,000 properties for rent in the King’s Lynn and West Norfolk area.

http://tinyurl.com/636lv3

Posted by Drew458     on 08/13/2008 at 12:01 PM   
Filed Under: • Nanny State • UK •  
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