I have been moaning for sometime about the "rabbit hutch" mentality in British housebuilding. But now it's official. A report from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment [http://www.cabe.org.uk/publications/space-in-new-homes] says that new British homes often have barely enough room for proper furniture or even a microwave. Things have become so silly that many people are now renting out units in self-storage warehouses to keep all their possessions in and, in some cases, to live in part of the time. A room that would have been a walk-in cupboard in my youth is now designated as a single bedroom. A single bed is all that you can get into it. No room for a wardrobe, drawers or even a chair. British house sizes are now the smallest in Europe with an average floorspace of 818 sq.ft. compared to 1200 sq.ft. in France.
When I started in Local Government we had the "Parker Morris" standards which were designed to ensure that houses were fit to live in and provided a decent standard of accommodation. Somewhere along the line these standards went to the wall. Now anything goes. The more units you can cram onto a piece of land the more profit you make. Never mind whether anyone wants to live in them or not. Never mind whether people will go mad, get stressed, and probably come to an early demise if they do.
Despite all the government's rhetoric on "Decent Homes" they are doing absolutely nothing to ensure we get them. It would be quite a simple matter to deal with - classify housing accommodation as "1 person", "2 person", "3 person" accommodation etc, with or without a garden. Then get Local Authorities to refuse planning consent for any units which do not meet an appropriate space standard for their grade. Separate space standards should be set for both living accommodation and garden space. Then people would know exactly what they were getting when buying a house or flat and local Housing Authorities would be easily able to deal with overcrowding issues without people being able to claim that the cupboard under the stairs is really a bedroom. Bring back Parker Morris.
Friday, 21 August 2009
Going, Going, Gone
I hung on as long as I could..... but my drawer unit has finally gone. My line manager wheeled it out himself despite my protestations that I will now not be able to work effectively. I threatened that he would be mentioned in my blog but it didn't seem to worry him. He probably doesn't think I have one. So .... MARTIN ...... you know who you are! This is the beginning of the end!
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
An Introduction to the Chaos of Follyville
Sorry no blog for a while ...... holidays etc. But it's back now to the chaos that is Follyville.
Follyville is the fictitious local authority I work for. Well .... I try and work for! Every day they try to make it more difficult to work for them. Some kind of perverse reverse logic I suppose. They want to increase efficiency but every move they make decreases it.
Everyone in my office has to move out by the end of the year. The burghers of Follyville have sold the office (in a prime position in the central High Street) and we are to be relocated to another office on the outskirts of the town. The trouble is, that office is already full with other employees. To make matters worse, part of that building has now been leased to a completely different organisation. The result will be about half the number of desks for the number of people that need one and very little storage space for anything else. Staff will have to book a desk and computer when they can get the chance, and work out of the office for the rest of the time.
We have now been ordered to empty all our drawers and cupboards by the end of the month in preparation for the move. At present we each have a neat little draw unit to accommodate much of what we need, which also extends the working area of the desk itself. Each draw unit has one of those little plastic inserts that hold all your paper clips, staples , rubber bands and all the other paraphernalia that is the mainstay of office life. It is a piece of equipment which is specifically designed for the purpose for which it is used. But now we have to empty it and try and find something else suitable to put all this stuff in ....... and then find somewhere to put that. And we can't just leave it on the desk-top because we won't actually have a desk-top to leave it on! At the moment I have put it all in a plastic box under the desk and am running a serious risk of getting a slipped disk or a hernia every time I try to retrieve anything. I am just wondering how many compensation claims it will take for the burghers to realise what a stupid mistake they have made.
All files and other documents must be scanned onto the computer as there will be nowhere to store them in the new office. This, initially, sounds like a good idea. But some paper copies are essential, to take to meetings or out on site. The cost of printing will rocket as everyone tries to copy scanned documents to work with .......... and then destroy them afterwards (until the next time) because there is nowhere to put them!
More about Follyville later
Follyville is the fictitious local authority I work for. Well .... I try and work for! Every day they try to make it more difficult to work for them. Some kind of perverse reverse logic I suppose. They want to increase efficiency but every move they make decreases it.
Everyone in my office has to move out by the end of the year. The burghers of Follyville have sold the office (in a prime position in the central High Street) and we are to be relocated to another office on the outskirts of the town. The trouble is, that office is already full with other employees. To make matters worse, part of that building has now been leased to a completely different organisation. The result will be about half the number of desks for the number of people that need one and very little storage space for anything else. Staff will have to book a desk and computer when they can get the chance, and work out of the office for the rest of the time.
We have now been ordered to empty all our drawers and cupboards by the end of the month in preparation for the move. At present we each have a neat little draw unit to accommodate much of what we need, which also extends the working area of the desk itself. Each draw unit has one of those little plastic inserts that hold all your paper clips, staples , rubber bands and all the other paraphernalia that is the mainstay of office life. It is a piece of equipment which is specifically designed for the purpose for which it is used. But now we have to empty it and try and find something else suitable to put all this stuff in ....... and then find somewhere to put that. And we can't just leave it on the desk-top because we won't actually have a desk-top to leave it on! At the moment I have put it all in a plastic box under the desk and am running a serious risk of getting a slipped disk or a hernia every time I try to retrieve anything. I am just wondering how many compensation claims it will take for the burghers to realise what a stupid mistake they have made.
All files and other documents must be scanned onto the computer as there will be nowhere to store them in the new office. This, initially, sounds like a good idea. But some paper copies are essential, to take to meetings or out on site. The cost of printing will rocket as everyone tries to copy scanned documents to work with .......... and then destroy them afterwards (until the next time) because there is nowhere to put them!
More about Follyville later
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