the wall and was secured each night. Just before leaving for home one Friday, I happened to glance around and noticed that the chief cashier had left his bag full of bank notes on the floor by the safe door. He must have forgotten to secure it in the safe and when I opened it there must have been several thousands of pounds in there. It was an extraordinarily large amount of cash in those days, so, thinking quickly, I decided to take the bag home with me. After all, I couldnât leave it there all night and I had no key to the safe.
Placing the bag of notes on the wire clip on the back of my NSU Quickly, I arrived safely home and put the package under my bed. When Monday morning arrived, I happily sailed into work, only to find police cars and policemen everywhere. The place was lit up with flashing blue lights.
âWhatâs going on?â I innocently enquired of one of the clerks who wore an expression of complete bafflement.
âAll the rent moneyâs been stolen,â came the swift reply.
âOh, thatâs OK, Iâve got â¦â but they wouldnât listen to me.
âPlease, son, weâre very busy. Just get on with your duties,â was all I got.
Several attempts later, I approached someone else. âExcuse me. Are you looking for this?â
The officialâs eyes nearly rolled out of his head when he caught sight of me holding the bag open with notes stuffed to the top.
âWhere on earth did you get that?â he bellowed, as all hell broke loose.
I explained the whole predicament and defended my actions reminding him that I was only a junior clerk and didnât have anyoneâs phone number to contact them in an emergency. I was briskly thanked and told to get on with my work. Somehow I felt it was all my fault and yet I had tried to help.
When the council offices were eventually moved to new premises, a new security vault was built which was burglar, blast and tunnel secure. There was no way anyone could rob this safe we were proudly told, as we were taken on a tour of this new protection system. Walking past the double-skinned, triple-lock metal door, we were then led past a floor-to-ceiling grill with one-inch steel bars. Once in this impressive chamber, the safe itself stood on a raised platform and the council officials were delighted with the solid walls and floor. Looking up, I asked what the ceiling was made of. They hadnât thought of that and gave me a very dismissive glance to hide their embarrassment. Anyone could have just gone upstairs, lifted the floorboards and dropped down into the hyper-secure safe-room through the ceiling tiles. Whoops!
Councils seem to have the reputation for incompetence, butI donât think they are any worse than any other major organisation. Local government is there, complete with all its little by-laws, to keep some sort of order in your district. You have to have your rubbish collected, your sewage removed and your pavements made safe, but because the council deals with so many people, a few problems are bound to slip through the net. These are the ones that get the publicity, ignoring all those who were perfectly happy.
I tried to pre-empt a few problems myself with all sorts of moneysaving ideas, which I thought were helpful. Some of my suggestions were even laughed at, but looking back they would have worked.
One thought was to place large tunnel-like tubes under all the roads in the new estates we were building. Each large tube would have a walkway along the bottom, above a tube that carried the sewage. Along the walls of the tube would be smaller tubes that carried all the services, electricity, telephone lines, gas and the like. There would be no need to ever dig up a road again. Each service would be able to access its own tube easily. If this had been taken up, it would have saved the nation millions, but then where would we be without our beloved roadworks!
At that time, and perhaps it is still the
Placing the bag of notes on the wire clip on the back of my NSU Quickly, I arrived safely home and put the package under my bed. When Monday morning arrived, I happily sailed into work, only to find police cars and policemen everywhere. The place was lit up with flashing blue lights.
âWhatâs going on?â I innocently enquired of one of the clerks who wore an expression of complete bafflement.
âAll the rent moneyâs been stolen,â came the swift reply.
âOh, thatâs OK, Iâve got â¦â but they wouldnât listen to me.
âPlease, son, weâre very busy. Just get on with your duties,â was all I got.
Several attempts later, I approached someone else. âExcuse me. Are you looking for this?â
The officialâs eyes nearly rolled out of his head when he caught sight of me holding the bag open with notes stuffed to the top.
âWhere on earth did you get that?â he bellowed, as all hell broke loose.
I explained the whole predicament and defended my actions reminding him that I was only a junior clerk and didnât have anyoneâs phone number to contact them in an emergency. I was briskly thanked and told to get on with my work. Somehow I felt it was all my fault and yet I had tried to help.
When the council offices were eventually moved to new premises, a new security vault was built which was burglar, blast and tunnel secure. There was no way anyone could rob this safe we were proudly told, as we were taken on a tour of this new protection system. Walking past the double-skinned, triple-lock metal door, we were then led past a floor-to-ceiling grill with one-inch steel bars. Once in this impressive chamber, the safe itself stood on a raised platform and the council officials were delighted with the solid walls and floor. Looking up, I asked what the ceiling was made of. They hadnât thought of that and gave me a very dismissive glance to hide their embarrassment. Anyone could have just gone upstairs, lifted the floorboards and dropped down into the hyper-secure safe-room through the ceiling tiles. Whoops!
Councils seem to have the reputation for incompetence, butI donât think they are any worse than any other major organisation. Local government is there, complete with all its little by-laws, to keep some sort of order in your district. You have to have your rubbish collected, your sewage removed and your pavements made safe, but because the council deals with so many people, a few problems are bound to slip through the net. These are the ones that get the publicity, ignoring all those who were perfectly happy.
I tried to pre-empt a few problems myself with all sorts of moneysaving ideas, which I thought were helpful. Some of my suggestions were even laughed at, but looking back they would have worked.
One thought was to place large tunnel-like tubes under all the roads in the new estates we were building. Each large tube would have a walkway along the bottom, above a tube that carried the sewage. Along the walls of the tube would be smaller tubes that carried all the services, electricity, telephone lines, gas and the like. There would be no need to ever dig up a road again. Each service would be able to access its own tube easily. If this had been taken up, it would have saved the nation millions, but then where would we be without our beloved roadworks!
At that time, and perhaps it is still the
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