OP
OP
captain nemo1701
Space cadet. Deck 42 Main Engineering.
- Location
- Bristol
Sorry to waste 30 seconds of your life by forcing you at gunpoint to read my posts.......
Irresponsible Scout Leaders blocking cycle path
- Thread starter captain nemo1701
- Start date
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- Tags
- cycle path
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Bimble
Bimbling along ...
I think calling the police was going a bit too far (did they get back to you with details of any action taken?) - but I get the annoyance when people do selfish stuff like this. Presumably they took up the whole of the path and cycle lane and you couldn't get around them without being forced onto the road? I'd have maybe gone and found the leader and asked them to move the vehicles. Escalate from there if they are rude and refuse.
subaqua
What’s the point
- Location
- Leytonstone
have a google for Lyme bay .
or in Bristol - Aaron Burgess and Iain Woodstock
OP was correct in not creating a scene.
My boy is in sea scouts. fist principle is doing it sensibly and launching in correct place.
does he do silly with axes ? damn right he doesn't its done properly .
its all great till it goes wrong .
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
In my experience, it's very very rare that the police in recent years have time get back to you with details of any action taken if you're not clearly a victim. So if you report road rage or worse, you may hear back, but if you report obstructions or things you've witnessed, you'll only hear it was acted upon if you go to hear the relevant police report to a parish/community/village/town council.
Arjimlad
Tights of Cydonia
- Location
- South Glos
To undertake this activity there would have had to have been a trained leader, a detailed and thorough risk assessment, approval by the District scout authority and suchlike. My lot are going walking up a small stream next Monday which I am quite happy will be safe/controlled risk. The location of the activity @captain nemo1701 describes is surprising to me.
Sorry @captain nemo1701 ...not having a go but I'd probably just be on my way and leave it at that......We see it differently but living in London seems to bring out every half wit to be inconsiderate to the next person like dodgy parking or just not knowing the fact i'm there.
My original post was more tongue in cheek also.
My original post was more tongue in cheek also.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
Fixed That For You - nothing actually stops an irresponsible scout leader going off half-cock before it happens, does it? If no-one like the OP reports stuff like this, they'd probably get away with it until someone gets hurt.
OP
OP
captain nemo1701
Space cadet. Deck 42 Main Engineering.
- Location
- Bristol
It's very central Bristol and is frequented by drug users, hence my concern over discarded 'sharps' which our engineering crew reported when we were down there doing some groundwork for the new widened road/culvert. It's fenced off, which should be a hint that it's not the best spot to launch craft from. And there's always my favourite along canals:
Leptospirosis (Weils disease).
Here's a Wikipedia extract on it:
At-risk occupations[edit]
Occupations at risk include veterinarians, slaughterhouse workers, farmers, sailors on rivers, sewer maintenance workers, waste disposal facility workers, and people who work on derelict buildings.[24] Slaughterhouse workers can contract the disease through contact with infected blood or body fluids. Rowers, kayakers and canoeists also sometimes contract the disease.[25] It was once mostly work-related but is now often also related to adventure tourism and recreational activities.[5]
(my italics)
The local rag here - Bristol Post - is always banging on about cycling on pavements. So when I use a new segregated facility, the last thing I expect to see are vehicles blocking it. OK, so I could have used the road and I did. But then again, why were they there in the first place?. It's clear that they were avoiding a parking ticket by not parking up on the double yellow lines, but then block the pavement/cycle path. Some people seem to operate on the basis of complying with one regulation by breaking another.
Plus, they had to lift the raft over that fence, down a slope into what is, basically, filthy water (it's Feeder Canal). Not the best environment to introduce kids to water!. I felt that it was also inappropriate timing, as the police divers had been out a few weeks earlier searching that very spot for someone who went missing from the Motion Nightclub across the water (he unfortunately drowned). Further upstream there are steps down onto the canal bank for fishing and you see canoeists all the time around the canal - perhaps it would have been more appropriate and safer to enter the water from further upstream from a designated access point. The whole thing looked very amateurish and I think they just racked up and got on with it - no RA plan or anything. If you look at the area on Bing Maps streetview, you get the old layout that does have a wide grassy bank. But that's long gone now with the widened road and cycle path.
I've no problem with kids doing adventure sports etc,and yes, risk is part of the game, but needs to be reduced and controlled. Fortunately, it appears nothing went wrong.
OP
OP
captain nemo1701
Space cadet. Deck 42 Main Engineering.
- Location
- Bristol
oldfatfool
Guru
To be fair climbing over railings to launch a home made raft on what appears to be commercial wasteland water in a city center does look a bit dickish and not what I would expect of the scouts if my 11 yo Johnny was involved. The op originally did however appear more agitated about how they had parked.
Amazed if this was risk assessed by qualified leaders, seems more like the daft crap we got up to in Venture scouts 30 years ago like sailing the river Ouse on homemade canoes towing barrels full of tents, but even back then we knew there was at least one scout group that was unable to meet in their scout hut without a qualified climber because they resided a certain height above sea level, so health and safety was taken quite seriously and to some extremes at times.
Amazed if this was risk assessed by qualified leaders, seems more like the daft crap we got up to in Venture scouts 30 years ago like sailing the river Ouse on homemade canoes towing barrels full of tents, but even back then we knew there was at least one scout group that was unable to meet in their scout hut without a qualified climber because they resided a certain height above sea level, so health and safety was taken quite seriously and to some extremes at times.
classic33
Leg End Member
Wonder if that was just a myth. I knew two with similar tales.
classic33
Leg End Member
What about the signs placed so that they obstruct the view at the junction?
OP
OP
captain nemo1701
Space cadet. Deck 42 Main Engineering.
- Location
- Bristol
They sometimes aren't there. I just thought that this guy was being daft by reversing fork lift trucks practically into the path of cyclists. No warning signs plus he should have had a banksman. In our firm, we've been told by the Very Big Cheese that things like this won't be tolerated.
jefmcg
Guru
How do you think that would have gone?
"Sorry kids, outing is cancelled. I thought we were doing was perfectly safe, but now this stranger on a bicycle has had a word, I realise it's very dangerous. Let's all go back to the scout hall and play scrabble**. Please make sure you let your parents know that if it wasn't for this strangers intervention I would have put your lives at risk."
@captain nemo1701, if you genuinely believe that the kids were in danger, you did absolutely the right thing. A mistake near water can quickly turn very bad indeed.
**yeah, I don't know a lot about scout activities.
DRM
Guru
- Location
- West Yorks
I must admit having looked at what the OP posted, I think it's not about being a killjoy, there can't have done risk assessment, and I wonder if the district commisioner had been informed about the activity, as stated in the Scout Associations Policy, organisation & rules, I for one would not have had any of my lot clambering over roadside fences, on to a steep banking, frequented by druggies,with a home made raft, into dubious water, just the thought of the accident form you have to fill in would be enough to make me think twice, there are surely better & safer places for such an activity to take place.
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