And you wonder where the Tax payers money is going!

[Otis]

Went to a Moto Union meeting yesterday at the South of England show ground where the sussex bike police were exhibiting.

Notwithstanding that the guy I spoke to had just written off a £30K BMW RT chasing aa 14 year old scrote, I was told that the police have now purchased a bunch of BMW 850 GS's at £30k a Pop in order to be able to pursue the little shits down lanes etc but probably still to no avail.

During the discussion I was told that if his helmet fell off his saddle it would immediately result in the issue of a brand new £1000 helmet. I asked him what his waterproofs were like and whilst I would consider a thousand pounds sufficient to buy a decent set he told me that the pants were £2000 and the jacket was £3000 so £5K for a nice set. He was retiring in 15 months and happily told me that he is entitled to have all his kit but "it would be nice if I could make a contribution"

I am speechless but this represents a world of motorcycling that I guess 99% of us could not even begin to comprehend.

[exvalvesetdabbler]

Quite normal in government.

The amount of stuff that is just thrown away because it was a risk selling it and no one had the time anyway.  I worked in various labs during my career, and being a habitual hoarder, I kept stuff hidden that might be useful or a parts donor.  My boss twigged onto this and made me thin out my hoard on a regular basis because storage space costs money. We pretty much worked on a 7 year write off so something that cost £25k new was zero value after that time.

I was pushing 15 year old bits of kit out into the field when things got busy or desperate. No thanks for saving the day - why are you spending time fixing old equipment?  The younger generation don't push back against this and just go with the flow and keep their heads down to preserve their favourable annual review.

The skips on site were a gold mine.

Regards
Dave

[Otis]

In the same vain, I dealt with a precision engineering company that had gone into liquidation and was responsible for selling stock and contracts to realise some benefit for the creditors. Most of the companies contracts were for the MOD and they had a clause that permitted them to avoid payment in the event of a default under the contract; insolvency being such a clause. The MOD owed millions and refused to pay so I cheekily said that if that was the case then they wouldn't object to my selling the stock on the open market ie. to the Russians or anyone else. They ultimately agreed to pay for the stock and then just wrote it off.

At around the same time the company I represented was invited to bid on the refurbishment of three disused RAF aircraft hangars near Oxford. The purpose of the refurbishment was simply to permit the storage of surplus goods. The cleaning bill alone for the removal of asbestos dust for each hangar was £1M plus the refurbishment cost. Not a single person was ever employed to be at the premises.

Also around the same time I was involved with a developer who built some industrial units near Selsey in West Sussex. He once showed me a unit that was stacked from floor to ceiling with office and school equipment that would never ever see the light of day. When I asked about it I was told that if the council hadn't spent their budget for that year they would have their budget reduced for the following year so it made sense for them to throw the money away.

I could go on and on and on and on but it depresses me too much and I have no doubt everyone reading this has similar tales to tell.

[Oddjob]

I spoke to someone who knew someone who worked at the Honda motorcycling training centre, Swindon I believe it was at the time. They would dismantle a new model to train mechanics but when it was at the end of it's life cycle it was thrown into a skip. My bike at the time was the CB1300 and there was one sat in a skip behind the centre. The trainers weren't supposed to take any parts but they turned a blind eye to it so long as it wasn't a big part like the engine for instance. I bought a LOAD of parts for a pittance, like the injector bank which costs around 2K to buy, all the switchgear handlebars, master cylinders etc to name just a few. Think I paid £100 for the lot. There is waste everywhere, it's seems a shame but that's the way they want it.

[exvalvesetdabbler]

That's how government budgets work.  Spend under budget they claw the surplus back and give you less the following year.

It was always prudent to have quotes in hand come January and sniff out other departments with an under spend to get things that you needed.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

When I worked for the local Mercedes Benz dealer they would carry out a parts stock inventory on a regular basis. Any new parts that had been on the shelf unsold for more than 90 days were put in the skip with few exceptions.

Helping yourself to parts out of the skip was deemed as gross misconduct, unless you were given permission by the manager. It seemed so wrong to see a brand new  rear door go into the metal skip.

[Bryanj]

Ford parts centre Daventry used to send artic loads of "surplus" spare to a private landfill, truck drivers had security guards with them at all times and every load wasfully filled in imediately

[Athame57]

I remember the Porkus Mobilum when they rode jam sandwich BMWs and wore what looked like riding jodhpurs probably issued to the horse police too. I get the feeling todays cops are somewhat over equipped and under staffed, perhaps it's time for a review? 

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

It might be different today, when I was in the Fuzz you had an allowance for things like Tunics & Trousers.
This would vary for different force areas. Tunics were one every two years, trousers 2 pairs a year. They were issued on application, not automatically. If you did not use your allowance in any one financial year you would loose the allowance/issue.

Shoes used to be best, one pair of all leather Technic Boots or Technic  Shoes every six months. We later lost the shoe issue as it was taken away when we had pay rises under Maggie Thatcher.

Traffic motorcycle riders had iirc a set of leathers and boots issued every year. They had to keep a best pair for special ocassions like royal visits etc. Leathers were made to measure as were Uniforms.