Historic clock tower destroyed by vandals

[matchmaker]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-cen...

The vandals in this case being Stirling Council. As you can imagine, there has been uproar. I passed it several times a day. Nothing was done to shore it up or protect it.

Angry resident said:

One angry resident told BBC Scotland News: "They made a half-baked attempt to take it down and then under cover of darkness they brought in a demolition machine and demolished it in an act of crass vandalism.

"No attempt to shore it up, take it down carefully - these mindless idiots did this to Stirling's heritage.

"What was done here was disgusting."

The clock tower was erected in 1906 in memory of George Christie, who was Provost of the Royal Burgh of Stirling from 1870 to 1879.

[pquinn]

Seems a bit half arsed, nothing is so unstable it can't be supported, just needs an adequate framework.

They didn't really bother trying then smashed it down with a big machine.

Doing bit in the middle of the night was hardly necessary, it was scaffolded and they could have just maintained a cordon like they already had while working out a plan. It was just stone, not a 1000lb bomb, not like it was going to do much.

[Biggy Stardust]

My understanding is that the dudes at the council will continue to receive full pay & perks, so it's all good.

[Southerner]

pquinn said:

Seems a bit half arsed, nothing is so unstable it can't be supported, just needs an adequate framework.

They didn't really bother trying then smashed it down with a big machine.

Doing bit in the middle of the night was hardly necessary, it was scaffolded and they could have just maintained a cordon like they already had while working out a plan. It was just stone, not a 1000lb bomb, not like it was going to do much.

Not so much “half arsed” as entirely planned and intended. Presumably they don’t want or can’t afford the aggro of paying specialists to either repair or sensitively dismantle it, so they smash it to bits with JCB in the middle of the night. Clearly they took lessons from some “property developer” types. I wonder if the council would have been quite so accomodating to the idea of knocking it down had the structure been owned by somebody else and therefore not the council’s problem to pay for?!

[Rivenink]

Schools and hospitals are falling apart, public services all over the place are underfunded. Local councils are mostly all staring at bankruptcy. People are looking at another winter of choosing between eating or heating...

and there is this bunch of moaners who think the council should leave no £ spare in saving a dilapidated old clock.

If they wanted it saved, they should have formed a charity trust to raise the cash to do so.

[foxbody-87]

I'm sure they'll try and save face (ha!) by erecting some ghastly modern art 'reinterpretation'.

[matchmaker]

Rivenink said:

Schools and hospitals are falling apart, public services all over the place are underfunded. Local councils are mostly all staring at bankruptcy. People are looking at another winter of choosing between eating or heating...

and there is this bunch of moaners who think the council should leave no £ spare in saving a dilapidated old clock.

If they wanted it saved, they should have formed a charity trust to raise the cash to do so.

This is the same council who have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds of council tax payers money on building cycle lanes nobody uses. They have plenty to spend on half-arsed schemes.

[g3org3y]

[pquinn]

Rivenink said:

Schools and hospitals are falling apart, public services all over the place are underfunded. Local councils are mostly all staring at bankruptcy. People are looking at another winter of choosing between eating or heating...

and there is this bunch of moaners who think the council should leave no £ spare in saving a dilapidated old clock.

If they wanted it saved, they should have formed a charity trust to raise the cash to do so.

You didn't even read the story did you?

[dandarez]

pquinn said:

Rivenink said:

Schools and hospitals are falling apart, public services all over the place are underfunded. Local councils are mostly all staring at bankruptcy. People are looking at another winter of choosing between eating or heating...

and there is this bunch of moaners who think the council should leave no £ spare in saving a dilapidated old clock.

If they wanted it saved, they should have formed a charity trust to raise the cash to do so.

You didn't even read the story did you?

I agree, he most certainly did not!

I did read the story. Sums up most councils in this land (yes, lots staring at bankruptcy thanks to the numbskulls that run them and waste virtually all their money on pointless schemes. As a simple example like 20mph zones (here our County Council has spent £8.4billion on this laughable 'un-enforceable' limit while roads are literally potholed and falling apart - hey ho, spending priorities, eh?

I love this bit put out by Stirling Council:
It said 'it had attempted to steady the pillar but "due to the urgent nature of concerns" it had to be removed on Friday evening. However...
The clock was saved and officials said restoration work will now be looked at.
'The Clock was saved!'

I think Stirling Council should look at the 19 seconds video of the 'Clock' being, well, literally ...demolished!

Utter fking incompetents. They abound in councils everywhere today.

[gt_12345]

Rivenink said:

Schools and hospitals are falling apart, public services all over the place are underfunded. Local councils are mostly all staring at bankruptcy. People are looking at another winter of choosing between eating or heating...

and there is this bunch of moaners who think the council should leave no £ spare in saving a dilapidated old clock.

If they wanted it saved, they should have formed a charity trust to raise the cash to do so.

How many diversity officers does the council have employed?

[paulw123]

Our council is apparently nearly bankrupt, but strangely it managed to find a lot of money to change a load of perfectly good roads down to pointless 20 zones, along with all the change in signage and now seemingly compulsive massive cycle lane. It also found even more to install traffic lights at perfectly good junctions that have caused massive tailbacks never seen before. Just to cap off the utter incompetence their latest scheme also necessitated the removal of all the verges and some lovely mature trees to end up with a vast expanse of different coloured tarmac.
The final cherry on the incompetence cake is the raised kerb between the (now much narrower) road and newly formed cycle lane means that during busy times cars are unable to move out the way of emergency vehicles.
Not even a popular cycling route, think I’ve seen it used a handful of times in the last few months. Millions of pounds totally wasted.

[Beyond Rational]

Pistonheads may struggle to comprehend this, but not all funding comes from the same pot. Often central government dictates where funds are spent, as much as we love to corelate the creation of an annoying cycle path or speed limit with the failure to stabilise a clock tower with an inherent structural defect.

[Biggy Stardust]

Beyond Rational said:

Pistonheads may struggle to comprehend this, but not all funding comes from the same pot. Often central government dictates where funds are spent, as much as we love to corelate the creation of an annoying cycle path or speed limit with the failure to stabilise a clock tower with an inherent structural defect.

I've seen guys installing speed bumps who couldn't fill in the adjacent pothole/crater because "different budget". It's a fairly good example of council incompetence, tbh.

[oyster]

Rivenink said:

Schools and hospitals are falling apart, public services all over the place are underfunded. Local councils are mostly all staring at bankruptcy. People are looking at another winter of choosing between eating or heating...

and there is this bunch of moaners who think the council should leave no £ spare in saving a dilapidated old clock.

If they wanted it saved, they should have formed a charity trust to raise the cash to do so.

It's this kind of thinking that led to the eyesores built in the 50s and 60s - many of which have cost additional sums because of poor build quality, asbestos (and now failing concrete).

Civic building spend should absolutely be part of council/public budgets, as well as the services you note.

• though spend should not be on frivolity such as artwork and posh fixtures/fittings.

[Eric Mc]

g3org3y said:

First thing I thought of - although I was thinking this lady should have been recruited -

[oyster]

Biggy Stardust said:

Beyond Rational said:

Pistonheads may struggle to comprehend this, but not all funding comes from the same pot. Often central government dictates where funds are spent, as much as we love to corelate the creation of an annoying cycle path or speed limit with the failure to stabilise a clock tower with an inherent structural defect.

I've seen guys installing speed bumps who couldn't fill in the adjacent pothole/crater because "different budget". It's a fairly good example of council incompetence, tbh.

For balance, I've never worked in the public sector, but I've seen the behaviour you describe countless times in the private sector - bith in FTSE100 blue chips and in SMEs. And in both start ups and in established businesses.
It's human behaviour.

[wc98]

Beyond Rational said:

Pistonheads may struggle to comprehend this, but not all funding comes from the same pot. Often central government dictates where funds are spent, as much as we love to corelate the creation of an annoying cycle path or speed limit with the failure to stabilise a clock tower with an inherent structural defect.

All funding does come from the same pot. The tax payers of the country.

[Derek Smith]

oyster said:

For balance, I've never worked in the public sector, but I've seen the behaviour you describe countless times in the private sector - bith in FTSE100 blue chips and in SMEs. And in both start ups and in established businesses.
It's human behaviour.

My son-in-law runs his own business as a contractor. One of his best paid and dependable contracts is with a water company repairing stuff. He's often speechless with anger where he's spent a day repairing outdated and badly worn equipment when, if they replaced it, they'd be saving money by the second year. He reckons many of his other contracts are similar, but the water company is comfortably in the lead in waste.

Once, he was called out at night (kerching!) on an emergency but they hadn't contacted anyone to let him enter the premises. Four hours, at increased rate, and no one seemed bothered. He hates waste.

With other contracts he has, he checks the work of various fitters; and independent review. He checked an installation, found a number of faults, one quite dodgy, and shut the 'bit' down. The regs are quite clear. He asked for someone to come and fix it - he isn't allowed to correct faults - and no one knew where a suitably qualified person was. Yet they had called him. He gave them a set of instructions when he first took out the contract.

I'm certain it goes on in the public sector too, but dear me, the private sector hasn't cracked it.

Oddly enough, I was in hospital for a biopsy sort of thing. There was a bloke in the bed beside me who owned a company. We chatted, and I talked about my kids and their partners. I mentioned what my son-in-law did, and he raised his voice, complaining of being 'robbed' by one. His fault was lack of planning, and planning for the obvious. "£400 to sit on his ar*e for two hours," he yelled at me. He too had failed to get someone able to carry out simple corrections to stand by.

[Evercross]

matchmaker said:

This is the same council who have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds of council tax payers money on building cycle lanes nobody uses. They have plenty to spend on half-arsed schemes.

This!

My own local council (Renfrew District) spent a quarter million on an aborted cycle lane through my town. They thought they were getting it 'on the cheap' by loosely interpreting the "Spaces for People" temporary Covid-19 measures that permitted barriering of roads to extend the width of pavements to increase social distancing space. They thought they could lay down rubber bollards on sections of road and dual-carriageway (bolted down, so technically temporary), but the work also involved moving raised/accessible bus stop platforms out to the new road boundary, plus one section passed in front of a row of shops with parking spaces in front so the track had to snake even further into the roadway to avoid the spaces (which were now not accessible anyway because of the bollards). Pedestrian islands also had to be removed as the remaining road was no longer wide enough.

When it was pointed out that a proper cycle track required road markings and warning signage on adjoining streets (something they hadn't budgeted for so didn't have, plus it required application to and the appropriate permissions from Traffic Scotland - which they hadn't pursued) the purpose of which being to advise drivers not to accidentally turn into and drive along the cycle track, which of course their Heath-Robinson effort suffered from leading to two accidents, the whole thing had to be ripped up and the original layout re-instated at great expense.

Cycle lane scrapped

Edited by Evercross on Wednesday 6th September 12:19