Evening all,
Its not until you leave the uk and live some place else that you do wonder why cant some of the powers to be dont seem to wake up,
Let me explain and please give me your thoughts on what I have to say,
We moved here to live full time 17 years ago, pre that we had a holiday home we'd bought and spent as much time in as holidays would allowed,
Once we came here full time we found out that for one (A) your T.V. Licence fee is taken out of your rates, so you dont have those vans coming round to detect who's not paid for a licence, But if you dont have a tv then you tell your local rates people you dont have one and they take your particulars and you pay nothing "But" they know who to check if checks are needed,
Once your aged 65yrs you dont pay any rates ie building rates you just pay for water etc, Again it helps with the bills not having to pay a large part of your rates.
They have local waste tips and unlike the uk its no problem if you want to take rubbish to these sites no matter if your in a van or pulling a trailer, when we lived in north wales no vans allowed on these sites,
Litter and fly tipping just dont happen, the people are very much into keeping the area's clean and having flowers growing all over the villages in baskets and in the middle of round abouts, they as the norm have a theme, ie this years is a plant pot theme ie ones a man & the others a woman all made from clay pots and the garden bit is a fence with real veg one side and flowers the other, It makes a nice welcome feel when your going from village to village and see what each village has to offer
Even on a friday the local Infant schools kids bring their cycles, little peddle cars and doll's prams to school for the afternoon street walk
so they get to know the traffic, and how to cross the roads, Every local knows this is happening as the teachers walk ahead "flag in hand" and behind, the kids all wave when they use the zebra crossing to say thank you,
And one last good idea they have is you can go to the post office and apply for a certificate to be allowed to drive a very low powered car
these small one seat cars are 45cc engine and are only allowed in your dept (area) they're not for motorway use or dual carrageway,
The idea is that the people using these vehicles can get to the chemist/doctors/shops, They're known by all full licence holders and they also know these vehicles dont go fast, They must be insured,