For some months now I have been in regular contact with our staff regarding the proliferation of increasingly pushy young backpackers earning their holiday spending money by signing up pledges for charities such as Amnesty. At first, Martina in corporate governance seemed reluctant to do anything to rein them in. There was even a suggestion made that the council 'had to issue permits'. Suffice to say I was quick to point out that our council took a far less supine attitude to residents' requests and applications.
Last Friday, Martina advised me that the umbrella organisation responsible for setting up the collections had been warned about the limits of tolerable behaviour. She also said that council would be looking at restricting the number of permits in future.
At least I had a happy weekend. What did I find when I went shopping at around 3pm this afternoon? Three happy little vegemites in orange Amnesty tee shirts were on the Coles side. One at the pedestrian crossing, one at the entrance to the store, and one out the front of Ferguson Plarres, where he had two young women bailed up. An elderly local gent, who had been sitting on the bench and selling Legacy badges out the front of Coles just ten minutes earlier, had shifted further up toward Ferguson Street. I can't help wondering why he allowed himself to be dislodged. My enquiries with a gentleman from by-laws (Martina from governance is away until Wednesday) revealed that the Amnesty squad did not have a permit. I intend to contact Martina on the Wednesday to make sure that she knows about this latest infringement in a long line of infringements.
I would urge all other shoppers who are annoyed about being harassed to phone our council offices to register their complaints.