Double standards on ‘red paint vandalism’ show who politicians really serve

This phenomenon is not limited to painting roundabouts.

Street furniture in the form of hollow steel lighting structures (streetlamps), wooden telecommunication poles, and wooden power company poles are being adorned with flags.

This might not sound much of a big deal. However, this practice presents all sorts of safety risks. Firstly, because the only way to attach these flags to the street furniture structures is to climb using a ladder.

Let me first declare my experience here. I spent twenty years on the tools with BT climbing telegraph poles. I spent a further eleven years looking after the specialist engineers whose job it is to test these poles to ensure they are safe to climb. I was not only a USR (Union Safety Rep) I was accredited to deliver Health and Safety Training to USR’s.

Let’s start with the Electric poles. The most striking thing about an electric pole, carrying electricity cables, is the yellow coloured notice telling the public not to try climbing the structure – because it’s dangerous. There is no means for any member of the public to determine the integrity of the structure of a wooden pole. It might have external or internal damage. Or internal decay above of below ground level. It may be set in the ground too shallow. Either way, when some numpty puts a ladder against an electric pole to attach a flag halfway up that pole, they have no way of knowing whether the pole will fall over. Injuring or killing either themselves or anyone else in the vicinity.

Ditto for BT/Openreach pole assets.

In terms of climbing a pole (and I can only refer to BT poles and not electric poles) to avoid accidents and injuries, a ladder must be secured to the pole at both the bottom and the top. Before any ladder is used, the pole must be visibly inspected for signs of external damage and to ensure it is at the correct depth (the three metre mark), and the base tested with a hammer (a dull thud indicates potential internal decay, whilst a ringing sound indicates an absence of internal decay. The work site must be guarded off and any temporary walkway for the public clearly laid out and signage used to warn traffic at appropriate distances. When climbing, a hard safety hat, steel toe cap boots and a safety belt with lanyard should be worn.

This protects the safety of passing pedestrians and road vehicle traffic, and the engineer climbing the structure. Allowing them to work safely on any plant from cables to protective cappings; cable joints, overhead wires and block terminals attached to the structure.

During the 1980’s, and this is relevant to the issue of Street lighting structures, the company attempted a programme originally designed with the idea of eventually replacing all wooden poles with what were designated as hollow poles. These were usually hollow fibre glass poles, but there were a few steel and galvanised steel ones. These are still around and usually have a sticker attached with a picture of a ladder and a red line through it to indicate that these structures are unsafe to climb.

That is why whenever you see anyone from the local council working at height on a street light structure, they will be using a mechanical hoist with a platform. Because, in the case of a street light structure, you are talking about a thin hollow steel pole which should not be accessed by a ladder because it is unsafe to do so.

These numpties climbing street furniture with a ladder to attach their silly little toy flags just do not have a clue about the risk they are posing to both themselves and anyone in the vicinity. The structure could fall down whilst they are up the ladder. The unattched and untied ladder could slip, and fall onto someone injuring them They could fall off onto some poor bugger passing by in the street or drop something on them. They could electrocute themselves or others. They could cause a vehicle accident and so on.

And then we have to consider the attachment to the structure. The flag. Looking at what’s gone up where I live, these are poor quality cloth with no reinforced holes to thread anything through in their manufacture. All of what I have seen so far have been attached using plastic cable ties around the scrunched up corners of the cloth to varying standards of security. At some point, there will most certainly be a proportion of these which will become detached in strong winds. They could blow anywhere. Into a nearby tree; wrapped round an electric cable; littering the street; or onto the windscreen of a passing car/bus/coach or twenty ton articulated truck – with all the potential we saw with the Taunton Rugby club firework display of November 4th 2011 (look it up).

And the purpose of all this is to convince and encourage anyone reading thus far to keep nagging the utilities and the local authority who look after the street lighting to act to remove these on public safety grounds. Because the longer they leave it, particularly the local councils with the streetlights, the more people will be encouraged to adorn street furniture with these attachments. Increasing the safety risks.

So far, I’ve managed to get Northernpowergrid to remove these illegal and unsafe attachments from four of their poles in a nearby village. Along with a BT/Openreach pole in the same location and another one on the main road of the town. The local authority streetlights are, however, presenting something of a challenge. I am now on my third report for some of these structures in the past two weeks.

The power company process of a online form is the easiest. BT have a telephone number which appears to be to an offshore call centre. Councils seem to have an online form but seem slow to respond. A post code and address will be necessary. Though, in the case of streetlights, it has got the stage where the easiest way is wording along these lines:

“Safety issue with multiple Street Lighting structures on X road between junction of Y Hill and Z Avenue.

A member or members of the public are putting themselves and other members of the public at risk by accessing these street light structures to attach items to the structure – probably using a ladder – on hollow structures which should not be climbed and only accessed using a hoist. These illegal attachments are not sufficiently securely attached and are likely to become detached in strong winds, with the potential to cause accidents involving passing traffic on a busy road.”

Thanks for listening, and good luck.