I’ve been going through a bit of a lean patch, recently.
All through the spring and summer I was getting a pass rate of around 70-80% (out of something like 25 tests). Since October this has completely flipped on its head, and I’ve only had two passes out of ten!
Admittedly, several of the fails were the same people, but it still hurts – especially when they put in a driving display worthy of a fairground sideshow attraction. Then you start wondering if the examiner thinks you are submitting substandard candidates, even though you know they can drive.
All the same, congratulations to AS – who passed last week with 4 driver faults. And also congratulations to JB, with 8 driver faults yesterday.
That pass rate is bugging me, though. I know that the DSA doesn’t have quotas, and that if someone can drive then they will pass the test no matter what day of the week it is. But it seems that pass rates go in these odd cycles – it always goes down in winter (irrespective of the weather).
A few weeks ago I wrote about the utter destruction that had been wrought on a country lane I frequently travel along. Nottinghamshire County Council had carried out some ‘maintenance’ – the first I have seen this year, and long overdue from a safety perspective. I pointed out, however, that this work went way beyond ‘maintenance’ and easily bordered on wanton vandalism.
I noticed I was getting a fair number of hits from the Council’s internal website – large organisations often have news harvesters looking for mention of their name, and then you get traffic once it is flagged.
Now, I also wrote to the Council to complain about what had happened. I got a polite response almost immediately, telling me it would be referred to the correct department for them to look into and to respond to in full. I went into some detail – providing photographs – and pointed out:
When [what I have said] taken into account **“ and allowing for ongoing concerns over disappearing hedgerows in the UK (not to mention the illegality of tearing them up) **“ you would expect any maintenance to be done with the utmost care.
Well, I have a reply from the Communities Department . This one doesn’t come across quite as politely as the initial response, and I get the distinct impression that they were not happy with my complaints. If anything, the detailed response is actually shorter than the one telling me it would be looked into!
It turns out that there is a considerable difference between a ‘hedgerow’ and things which are not designated as hedgerows (even though they look the same to me and also, no doubt, to the wildlife that chooses to live in them). At least as far as the Council is concerned. The Communities Department refers to ‘non-hedgerows’ with the euphemism self setting vegetation .
In response to my comments about the use of one of those tractor-mounted devices, it informs me that:
…it is not uncommon for a tractor to be used when cutting overgrown vegetation outside of Bird Nesting season.
Yes, I am aware of that. My point is how poorly operated these devices are. However, the important detail here is that the complex laws concerning hedgerows – so complex, indeed, that I suspect councils can twist the meaning as it suits them – means they can be mangled almost at will when the birds aren’t nesting (see Naturenet for more information on hedgerow laws). They go on:
I can assure you that no hedgerow or planted trees were destroyed during this routine maintenance, only self setting vegetation.
Hold on! This is a play on words. For a start, the ‘routine’ maintenance has pulled out or smashed down trees which must have been at least 5-10 years old and virtually eliminated the Dog Rose and Hawthorn amongst them. Most of the trees and bushes here, I can assure you, were NOT overhanging the road – and even if they were, there is a world of difference between cutting branches back and tearing whole trees out of the ground. Remember one of the photos?
Does this look like ‘routine’ maintenance? Where were they these last 10 years while the trees were just shoots?
It also doesn’t address what I told them about those damned tractors. They can be fitted with flails to deal with anything from cutting the bobbles off an Angora sweater to bringing down a helicopter. This one was clearly fitted with the latter: it was set to Maximum Death Kill Mode, either deliberately or because they don’t have the other parts available to set it up in any other way. They ALWAYS have the damned things set to this level of destruction.
And let’s not forget the fact that I have seen a grass snake, stoats, owls, and so on in the last 6 months slithering, running, or flying into that self setting vegetation the Council thinks so little of. I wonder what those animals will do now?
But worst of all is the frightening realisation that any tree, plant, or shrub – literally ANY of them – is liable to be chopped down by Nottinghamshire County Council if it isn’t officially a Card-carrying Member Of The United Alliance Of Hedgerows! And membership is, of course, determined ONLY by Nottinghamshire County Council!
Actually, this would explain a hell of a lot of the apparent ineptitude on the Council’s part over the years. Not one patch of land is safe from being ‘managed’ and having the underbrush cleared to make way for footpaths and fly-tippers. Often this is a precursor to a ‘Land For Sale’ sign going up at some point. So a patch of untouched land which is a haven for all kinds of wildlife (much of it not catalogued) is suddenly ‘maintained’, and becomes a dogs’ toilet for a while before being turned into an embryo slum estate.
But anyway, there you have it. On any country lane, only official hedgerows are protected in any way. Anything else – 50-year old trees, orchids, willows, whatever – are designated self setting vegetation can be torn down (badly) by the Council, at will. Unless they can prove they were ‘planted’!
Except… this is simply not true. It is Nottinghamshire County Council making things up! If you take a look at that Naturenet link to hedgerows and the law, it says:
A hedgerow is ‘a row of bushes forming a hedge, with the trees growing in it’. Where a former hedgerow has grown up to form trees, it is not covered by the regulations. The exact difference between a line of trees and a hedgerow is not defined in law.
So, nothing about being ‘planted’. And what constitutes a hedgerow covered by regulations?
Hedgerows on or adjacent to the following… Land used for agriculture [amongst others]…
Which is exactly what THIS former row of bushes and trees is bordering and acting as a hedge to.
You couldn’t make this up, sometimes. The Council is more than happy to do that, though!
I was on my way to a pupil last night during the rush hour. I was travelling south along the Nottingham Ring Road, just at the junction with Nuthall Road – here, the road is temporarily three lanes wide (or four if you include the right-turn only lane towards the M1), but it merges back to two as soon as you get past the traffic lights. I was in the 2nd lane.
The lanes were just merging when I saw this dark grey or black Volvo V70 approaching at extremely high speed in my mirror in the outside lane (reg. no. YP09 ZTF ). The guy driving it literally forced me into the left-hand lane. He had no intention of stopping or of giving way.
Obviously, I used a variety of hand signals to explain to him the inadequacy of his genitals and the absence of anything between his ears. He seemed to understand this, because when I passed him he was holding his finger up in such a way that he recognised what he was. I should also point out that his physiognomy was most typical of his kind.
"Crybaby" Jim Breaks
I don’t know if anyone remembers a wrestler in the 70s called Jimmy Breaks (nicknamed “crybaby”). I don’t want to be disrespectful to Jimmy, because he was a great entertainer, but he did have a certain appearance which went in tandem with both his image and his profession. Essentially, he had a face which looked like it had just encountered a wall at high speed.
Well, the zygote driving this Volvo had exactly the same appearance – small and inferior-looking, with piggy little eyes close together. He also had the kind of hair and fringe which looked like someone had run some masking tape around his head, then farted on it whilst suffering from the biggest dose of the galloping gazungas ever encountered. You know what I mean: cropped short, dead straight fringe with no deviation, extremely dense (just like what was underneath).
But the speed he was doing in that 40mph zone must have been close to 60mph (they do it between the speed cameras when they try to queue jump in heavy traffic) and his driving so dangerous that if it were caught on film he would be looking at a jail term. Seriously, you had to see it to believe it! Oh, yes. And he had a woman in the car with him. I bet she was dead impressed.
Now, I know that this sort of behaviour is a growing problem – especially with the sort of pondlife which drives like the guy in the Volvo (reg. no. YP09 ZTF – I’ll mention it again so the search engines pick it up well). But I was out with a pupil today, and bearing right at Trent Bridge to go down Radcliffe Road there was this woman in a blue Renault Scenic (reg. no. FD07 POJ ) who was in the left lane, and she forced us out in order to get past parked cars without stopping.
Once again, I used hand signals to explain the obvious weakness with whatever it was which passed for intelligence in her species – but I don’t think she saw because she was deliberately not looking in the mirror (like they do). I caught a glimpse of her face and she, too, bore a striking resemblance to the guy in the Volvo (with the exception of longer hair and no doubt something defining her femaleness (which would need to be determined in a laboratory, seeing as it wasn’t that apparent otherwise).
At the Lady Bay traffic lights she got behind another learner. I can imagine the cursing which was emanating from her front orifice – she had what appeared to be a young girl in the passenger seat – and when the lights changed she forced her way across several lanes to both over- and undertake at more than than the 30mph speed limit in force on that road.
These kinds of people – who really should be prevented from breeding – are a frighteningly growing phenomenon on our roads. They aren’t just dangerous, but dangerously illegal in their behaviour. Something really needs to be done about them.
When I first installed RC1, I had a few problems getting my HP Deskjet 1220C to run. The drivers wouldn’t install from disk.
Windows 7: Deskjet 1220C Installed
After reading some complete rubbish about how this printer isn’t supported – some of it on Microsoft’s own forums by people it elevates to MVP – I discovered that it IS supported.
Windows 7 will automatically install 1220C drivers when you plug in/turn on the printer. You do not need any extra software or drivers for the 1220c. Support is built right in to Windows 7.
The graphic here shows the 1220C installed and ready to go on my clean install of the commercial version of Windows 7 Ultimate. I can assure you it is printing perfectly.
It never ceases to amaze me how much bad information gets spread on the Internet. People say something, defend it, then evidence arises that totally contradicts their original statement… and they still defend it! You really do wonder what planet they are on sometimes.
Anyone listening to the idiot who claimed the 1220C wasn’t supported – and who also defended that claim vehemently – could have gone out and spent another £100+ on a printer unnecessarily.
EDIT 2/12/09: I’m getting a lot of hits for this post – I’d be interested to hear from people about whether it helped them or not. Did you get your printer working after reading this? What problems had you had which made you search for it? You can use the contact form .
EDIT 08/07/2010: I’m still getting a lot of hits for this post. I should also point out that when I installed the commercial version of Windows 7 Ultimate, my printer worked perfectly first time. Any problems I had with RC1 seem to have been specifically to do with RC1, and not Windows itself.
I’ve been getting a few hits from people asking what happens to AA driving instructor cars once they go back.
From what I have been told by AA instructors, the cars are supplied by a company in Kent called Ambrosetti . Until a couple of years ago it was via a company in Leicestershire. The AA pays for the cars, but no one seems to know how much or if they actually buy them or just lease them.
Instructors keep the cars for 6 months, and then they are collected by Ambrosetti when the new one is delivered. The old cars are auctioned off, but I don’t know who to or the mechanics involved. Since Focuses hold their value quite well (and are expensive to begin with) I would imagine that there is little financial loss as far as the interested parties are concerned. After all, the AA charges its franchisees around £200 a week and is unlikely to be paying anywhere near full retail prices for them, and Ambrosetti would be able to sell the cars on for probably more than was paid for the 6 month lease on each car.
If anyone is genuinely interested in getting hold of one, the best thing to do would be to contact Ambrosetti to start with on 01304 611023 (the webpage seems to be down as I write this).
Saw this story in the Daily Telegraph today. Apparently, two of the directors have finalised a £10m buyout from Arques – further details, such as which cars will be used aren’t available yet, though I would expect any recent deals would have to be honoured. The Arque deal was only completed in February, so this comes less than a year later:
The report says:
Mr Shafi and Mr Kesting intend to expand the Bristol-based business… by hiring 3,000 new instructors within two years, despite the recession causing a shortage of candidates for the job.
I’m sure that this will get a few peoples backs up.
The report finishes:
The pair hope to reopen high street centres closed under the previous ownership to raise the company’s public profile and achieve sustained capital growth by 2011.
I had a pupil on test this morning, and she failed. She’s a good driver, but gets nervous on test (she is dyslexic and has to try very hard to carry out the manoeuvres correctly). She’s a trainee nurse and, on the bursary she has to live on, cannot afford to keep taking lessons or paying for tests. She bought a car, but she’s going to have to sell it because she can’t afford to keep it sitting on the road if she can’t drive it. Her result was actually quite good – she just made a simple mistake.
Like I say, she’s a good driver – easily safe enough to drive on her own, but obviously you have to perform better than that in order to pass the test.
I was driving her home and she was struggling to keep the tears in check. We came to a mini-roundabout and I waited to let a lorry and a couple of cars coming the opposite way turn right. Behind them was a grey 4×4 being driven by a woman (reg no. AJ57 AHC ). You know the type: she could barely see above the steering wheel, but having a big, kick-ass 4×4 that you can’t handle properly is an essential status symbol for a lot of very insecure people (and women in particular, it must be said).
She wasn’t indicating, but she WAS turning right! She started to turn, THEN indicated, and it became clear she was also on the phone judging by the way her mouth was going and the way her head was cocked to hold the phone between her ear and shoulder!
My pupil asked the question: “why do THEY get licences when they do things like that?”
And that is the question to which there really is no satisfactory answer.
I thought I’d added this, but I can’t find it. I’ve commented recently about the Windows 7 drivers (or lack thereof) for my new HP Scanjet G4010 , and how I got round the problem by using W7’s XP Mode.
I was angry that HP had apparently programmed the installer not to work on anything other than Vista or earlier, but had told me via Tech Support that W7 drivers would be released once W7 was itself released. Well, on the day W7 was released I checked HP’s site and it had definitely been updated. There was a link to ‘how to get W7 drivers’ but nothing downloadable at the end of it, and nothing of any use from a technical perspective.
I can’t remember what made me do it – or even what it was exactly that I did – but without downloading anything at all, the drivers now install. The scanner works under W7.
On the one hand, I am happy. But I don’t like how HP did this, or what they apparently did to unlock the installer. I mean, what DID they do? I didn’t authorise any download, but something obviously got through.
EDIT 06/11/2009: I’m noticing a few hits for this. If this post helps anyone, could you drop me a line using the Contact Form to let me know?
One thing I will point out is that although the scanner works, the toolbox which contains the OCR software doesn’t. However, take a look at this link for SimpleOCR – a freeware OCR program.
I’m waiting for my copy of W7 Ultimate to arrive, and when it does I’ll be doing a clean install on my Vista partition. If anyone is having trouble with their G4010 scanner, I will check out what I do for them and post back here.
EDIT 13/11/09: I’m still getting hits for this. Note that the HP website says that the G4010 is definitely on the list referred to by the following:
The following list of scanners already have, or will soon have, full software support for Microsoft Windows 7. The Microsoft Windows 7 solution can be found either in the CD shipped with the scanner or at the HP support web site (www.hp.com/support)…
So stop worrying and wait… THEY DON’T YET EXIST, SO STOP KEEP LOOKING AND DON’T DOWNLOAD ANYTHING EXCEPT FROM HP!
EDIT 21/11/09: Just to point out that mine has stopped working even under Virtual XP. My PC just tells me the scanner isn’t connected or there is a problem. If you connect it under W7 you are likely to get a Blue Screen.
FOR THE HARD OF HEARING: THE G4010 DOESN’T WORK WITH WINDOWS 7 BUT HP IS SUPPOSED TO BE PRODUCING DRIVERS.
EDIT 2/12/09: Let me also clarify that SimpleOCR does not magically make the scanner work under Windows 7. The G4010 does not have W7 drivers, yet. Period. I mentioned SimpleOCR because it DID work for me whilst the scanner was functioning under Virtual XP. Seeing as it doesn’t anymore, SimpleOCR is just a separate piece of software.
EDIT 28/02/2010: For anyone too lazy to search properly, drivers are now available and mentioned in this post .
EDIT 21/06/2010: This post is proving very popular. Someone just found it on the search term “how to use ocr in hp g4010 scanners”. It’s easy – if you have installed the W7 drivers from HP which I linked to above.
Make sure the scanner is turned on and connected, open the HP Solution Center, then click “Scan Document”. You can then select from a list of different file types from TIF, through PDF and email, RTF and Word, all the way down to lowly WordPad. Then click “scan”. The rest is self-explanatory.
You read a lot about the state of the planet these days. Closer to home, much is made of the decline of the British hedgerow .
Hedgerows can be very old – often marking important boundaries. But their most significant features are their aesthetic appeal, and the amount of habitat they provide for various important flora and fauna. Many of the flora and fauna are endangered, and hedgerows are the only habitats in which they can survive.
The law surrounding hedgerows is both vague and complex – something the authorities like to make use of. You can read much more about the subject on Naturenet.
One of the most annoying aspects of hedgerow – and, indeed, any natural area’s – maintenance is the JCB (or tractor)-mounted Hedge Trimmer, like this one.
Note the idyllic setting… spring or early summer, overhanging trees with blossom. Quiet rural road.
You can almost imagine wood nymphs frolicking naked in the adjoining fields, as local peasants draw water from natural wells or bathe in crystal-clear springs, before heading to the fields to sow their crops.
The reality is somewhat different, though. The picture here – taken from a sales brochure – doesn’t tell the true story. Not by a very long way indeed. After the passing of one of these damned things, it looks like someone has dropped a bomb!
These destructive machines are not just used to mow the grass. They can be used for that, of course, usually after they’ve been adjusted to cut to about 5cm below ground level to make the trim last longer. But they also tend to ‘mow’ anything that gets in their paths, and that includes all kinds of rubbish (i.e. plastic bottles) that the sanitised picture here doesn’t show. They’ll pulverise a Coke bottle, discarded wheel trim, or traffic cone into fragments in seconds – which brings me on to the subject of what they do to hedges.
I must admit that in the past I have been amazed by what local councils – and other "responsible" bodies, such as the National Rivers Authority (NRA) – do when they ‘maintain’ areas which fall under their jurisdiction. Forcing tarmac footpaths through every patch of green is one of my least favourite – how on earth attracting people into the middle of previously inaccessible natural areas (with their bikes, dogs, motorcycles, household waste, and so on) is in any way conducive to ‘conservation’ is a form of logic which escapes me. I think with councils in particular there is a huge chasm separating what they say they will do when they want to be elected, and what they actually do once they have been. So… are you ready for this?
Don’t forget that idyllic scene in the picture from the sales brochure…
Over the last few days I have driven a number of times down a single track road in Bunny, Nottinghamshire, with pupils. They are "trimming" the hedges.
The result is shown on the left.
Until they started, the trees were up to that fence. But look more closely and you’ll notice that we aren’t talking about a bit of pruning – this is wholesale destruction.
The picture on below right shows some of the damage and debris in more detail.
You can see how entire trees have simply been ripped apart – partly by the pneumatic jaws of the trimmer, partly by the sheer incompetence of the driver of the vehicle – who seems to have dragged some of them out of the ground as though he were in a hurry.
The trees were probably 20-30 feet high before they were killed.
It isn’t just this one area – a long stretch of the road which is apparently the responsibility of the Council is affected to the same degree (a stretch further down, and most of the opposite side of the road, is the responsibility of the local farmer, who makes a somewhat better job of things)..
This next picture on the left clearly shows soil, where the tree has effectively been uprooted. It’s just been dragged out of the ground.
The tree – a willow – was clearly a mature specimen. The trunk thickness is a guide to that fact.
This next picture, below right, shows the typical damage caused by these devices to smaller branches – even when they are being used correctly. They simply smash the branches apart, and they are hugely powerful – meaning they can do the same to almost anything that fits between the jaws.
This is why I am against them – because even if they’re being used properly as “trimming devices” they still cause huge damage to the trees they’re used on.
The next picture below shows a tall – but now, very dead – willow tree It just looks like it has been blasted apart.
Even when a tree is left standing, as is the case when it won’t fit the jaws, branches that do fit are torn off, along with long strips of bark. Or the jaws will nip the trunk and shave the bark off one side, which is obviously going to weaken any tree that survives the immediate onslaught.
Finally, below right, another willow tree. Randomly selected from numerous more destroyed examples, the thickness of the trunk suggest a quite mature specimen.
Again, just look at the thicknesses of those trunks. This is not pruning or trimming. It is tree-felling. Hardly the rural idyll depicted in the brochure, is it?
I have long held the belief that council (and other authorities) workers who operate these machines, chainsaws, strimmers (or any other piece of equipment the general public wouldn’t normally have access to) have the kinds of intellects where they really get off on using them. The workers in this case had "NCC" on their backs, which I assume stands for "Nottinghamshire County Council".
Ironically, this particular road became overgrown to a significant degree way back in spring. So overgrown, in fact, that it was dangerous to drive down – and yet nobody did anything (well, a farmer did trim his section, and I noticed today that the NCC workers have left that section alone). Also ironically, Nottinghamshire has had a major issue this year with foliage hiding road signs – no one responsible for this serious problem got off their backsides and did what they’re supposed to.
Indeed, the proliferation of those "Your Speed" signs around here has, on occasion, raised smiles with me and my pupils when we have seen them being erected behind trees – thus necessitating pruning (some months later, naturally: it’s a different department) so that the branches don’t trigger the things falsely! No doubt there is some huge bureaucracy shielding any single person from that sort of cock-up, though.
I suppose the obvious conclusion is that complete stupidity obviously doesn’t just drive a tractor with a pneumatic strimmer on it. Stupidity also organises things from behind desks at County Hall (or any other place where responsibility accompanies it).
Less than a month ago, on this same road, I had to slow down to avoid a large grass snake – the first time in my life I have ever seen a live snake in the wild in this country. Yesterday, I saw a stoat (or weasel – I can never tell which, as they go so fast) dart across in front of me. I see various hawks daily, and in spring and summer it is common to end up following a hare as it seeks to find a gap in the hedge (though it shouldn’t have much trouble now). Owls occasional flit across your headlight beams at night. During summer days, bright green cuckoos are often disturbed by passing cars. Nottingham County Council is doing its level best to screw all that up.
Another aspect of these voracious cutting machines is that hedge-trimming is now often done more frequently. What was once a chore is now a doddle for farmers and landowners. As a result, hedgerows consisting primarily of Hawthorn have their new growth removed in early spring (and so look awful for a large part of the time), and then all the berries are removed around September/October – and these are (or were) a food source for some of our native birds. The same applies to hedgerows containing Elderberry – these have weak stems and the thrashing they get up to three times between spring and autumn prevents them being able to produce flowers or fruit. At the moment, most rural roads with hedgerows around here look sterile: all the yellowing leaves have been shaken off and the berries are gone. All that’s left are shattered twigs and geometrically-shaped woody columns for mile after mile.
In defence of farmers, at least they have the sense to fit their machines with the right kind of flail head. You see, those tractor-mounted cutters can have a variety of ‘hammers’ installed which deal with anything from grass up to things the size of cooling towers. Nottinghamshire County Council appears to operate on the ‘one size fits all’ principle, and that’s why its machines can do the kind of damage to whole trees shown in those pictures above.
I wonder if anyone will realise the damage being done before it’s too late? And I wonder if Nottinghamshire County Council actually cares?
Footnote: I reported it to the Council at the time. They responded with a load of guff about "maintenance", as usual, but admitted that they would tidy up the debris. They never did. And that was more than two years ago!
The light bulb that lasts 25 years: It’s environmentally friendly and as bright as the old ones…
It could be the breakthrough that finally has consumers warming to the energy-saving light bulb…
Manufacturers claim the Pharox is the first low-energy bulb to give off the same light quality and brightness as a conventional 60-watt traditional bulb…
The bulb’s launch comes ahead of a European ban on conventional 60-watt incandescent bulbs, due to be introduced in 2011…
Let me just remind everyone of an article I posted in January – Daily Mail And Incandescence Over Light Bulbs. In it, I explain how the future of the light bulb lies with LEDs, and I mentioned the Pharox bulb in there. Contrary to what the Mail is reporting – inaccurately, as usual – the Pharox is not new – it has been around since 2007. It is simply being launched officially in the UK.
Ironically, I posted this at the time as a direct result of the Daily Mail offering free incandescent bulbs to its elderly Tory readership – all fuelled by its hatred of anything to do with the EU, or which has its roots in any time period after the mid-20th century. I notice that the latest article does not mention this ill-conceived and totally stupid stunt.The word ‘hypocrites’ springs to mind.
Mind you, you wouldn’t believe the number of hits I got from people searching for “daily mail free lightbulb offer”. Anything for free, eh?
Check out some of the idiotic reader comments, as well (at the bottom of the latest Mail story).
The Pharox is available from Lemnis Lighting and Ryness (more info on REUK (via their website)) and you can get different versions (4/40W and 6/60W equivalents), plus bayonet or screw fittings. More suppliers will undoubtedly follow.
One of the most annoying aspects of hedgerow – and, indeed, any natural area’s – maintenance is the JCB (or tractor)-mounted Hedge Trimmer, like this one.
Over the last few days I have driven a number of times down a single track road in Bunny, Nottinghamshire, with pupils. They are "trimming" the hedges. 
You can see how entire trees have simply been ripped apart – partly by the pneumatic jaws of the trimmer, partly by the sheer incompetence of the driver of the vehicle – who seems to have dragged some of them out of the ground as though he were in a hurry.
ost of the opposite side of the road, is the responsibility of the local farmer, who makes a somewhat better job of things)..
powerful – meaning they can do the same to almost anything that fits between the jaws.
s obviously going to weaken any tree that survives the immediate onslaught.
piece of equipment the general public wouldn’t normally have access to) have the kinds of intellects where they really get off on using them. The workers in this case had "NCC" on their backs, which I assume stands for "Nottinghamshire County Council".