I am a great defender of Aberdeen. It is my adopted home town, and unlike many of the born and bred residents, I am aware of just how lucky I am to live here.
"The Guardian" has caught onto this fact and this week in their Weekend supplement, the "Let's Move to" feature concentrates on my lovely, if cold, little city.
The article says, "..the city is spick and span with more parks and municipal borders than it knows what to do with". Too true. The city doesn't win "Britain in Bloom" every flipping year for no reason.
I could go on for hours about how great my town is, but I want to pay tribute to someone, who shall remain anonymous who risked all to make Aberdeen a perfect crime free place to live; my friend, the Community Warden Blogger. Unfortunately, you can no longer read their blog as, being critical of the new Council policy of stripping the successful and much respected Community Wardens of their links with Grampian Police, the blog ( A Community Warden's Day) has been taken down. But not before the local papers wrote an excellent article about the blogger and their whistleblowing activities.
Community Wardens help make Aberdeen a safe place to live. As the on-the-street eyes and ears of law enforcement, the wardens worked together with the police, and together they were well on the way to having street crime nigh-on licked.
Now, sent out to face the troublemakers of Aberdeen without police back up and proper radios, these guys and girls are defenceless and under threat of attack, as they simultaneously have to gain the trust of the community whilst at the same time fining folk for dog fouling and parking violations.
Their bosses are no longer the police force, with all their databases, experience and communications systems, but the beleaguered and much criticised City Council, who have no such systems and who seem to think revenue from parking tickets is more important than crime prevention.
Community Warden blogger, I salute you and hope that your bravery in bringing this travesty to wider public attention, will get the ailing and inept City Cooncil to rethink their ridiculous strategy which strikes me as being akin to peeing in your own canoe.
Many at Grampian Police agree with the Community Warden Blogger, I believe. Some of them read this blog, as do a couple of councillors, so they may have comments to make.
But for me, this little quote from one of the teen residents of a choice area of toon, speaks volumes,
"Aye, they are alright. They gie ye intae trouble but they always find yer chory* bikes."
The wardens do the jobs that the Police don't have time to do and in so doing are a real part of the community.
Read the excellent article about the Community Warden's Blog here.
Aaaah.... the power of blogging!
* (Chory = stolen)
5 comments:
Toon cooncils. Gotta love them. Or they'll fine you, I believe. I suspect the cooncillors up there must be related to the ones down here inflicting heinously expensive chaos on the city in the name of trams no-one wants.
Aye, Aberdeen is indeed a fine city, I've been there many times.
As is usual for politicians, they only see the money side. They don't realise that real people and the quality of their lives is what matters. It may cost another couple of quid to run hand in hand with the Police, but if it gets the job done and it's what the people want then that's what matters. Politicians and Council chief should remember that they are our servants, and it's us they answer to.
The Jaggy clan will be up in your neck of the woods next weekend in fact. We're visiting our good friends in Stonehaven. (Or Stoneybridge as we call it. Remember Absolutely?)
Loth: Oh is the tram thing going ahead? I thought that was a Pie In the Sky thing that would go away. One question: what's wrong wi the buses? Embra's not big enough to need a tram system.
Jaggy: The Problem the Wardens had PR wise it that other crimes of the Cooncil were deemed more immediately heinous by the Press and the Warden issue didn't get much attention until this blog was outed.
Crimes like the fact that they are nigh on bankrupt and are closing schools, ice-rinks, swimming pools and anything they can think of to try and cover up their financial mess (The Guardian article actually mentions this so- nice PR for Aberdeen Council then eh, cooncillors?).
Only recently they gave golden handshakes of about 1/4 million to each of their departing directors. I'm not that good at sums but....
I could say sooooo much on this subject, but I cannot. Suffice to say that Toytowner's finest is fair scunnered with the Cooncil on this matter.
Tch, another example of the way only a true cretin reasons: if we can't read about it the problem doesn't exist. Idiots. I hope this community warden blogger starts up another one, and then another, and another, until the idiots in charge get the message. You can't gag the truth!
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