A few days ago my #2 son was cutting down some trees for his ageing parents. And he discovered a wasp nest. Not very big. But about the size of…..an average sized Easter Egg. Hmmm sorry but I can describe it in no other way.

This morning I phoned Environmental Health at our local council. I assumed they had a service for this kinda thing.

Well they kinda do………and they kinda dont. The guy at the Council was very nice. He asked me my postcode. And rather oddly there is no funding from DRD or DSD (I get confused) for reemoving a wasp nest in our garden. We are not in a designated regeneration area.

I find this odd. Even unfair. Now I dont in any way resent the fact that I have to pay for a service. I can afford it. What bothers me is the arbitrary nature. A person within my postcode area may or may not be able to afford this. A person in a regeneration area may or may not be able to afford the service…..but a postcode seems a very bizarre way to make a decision.

Happily a very nice man (found thru Yellow Pages) removed the wasp nest about 7.15pm tonight. Apparently even within this small nest there might be around three hundred wasps. They should all be dead in the morning and the nice man will come back on Wednesday to check that all is well. All very reasonable and a snip at £35. I dont feel that I was………stung…….geddit?

But heres the thing. We have a blue wheely bin. We have a green wheely bin.

But some of our neighbours have a brown wheely bin. In which they put grass cuttings etc. We have to transport ours to the local amenity. Now every few months I phone the Council and get the same answer….funding has run out.

Again services provided on an arbitrary basis.

This folks……is wrong.