Skip Alert

Whenever a homeowner in the neighbourhood has some building work done on their house (e.g. new roof - or a home extension) - a large container called a “skip” is usually hired to collect all the debris. Why it’s called a “skip” beats me - but the skip is usually delivered to the house by a truck that’s specifically designed to transport skips (see picture when you click on the link above) - and is usually left on the street in front of the house that hired it. A week or so later - the same truck comes back to pick the skip up - and dispose of the unwanted construction debris at an appropriate municipal dumping place.

However, and I think this a peculiarly British thing, whenever a skip appears in front of a house - it seems to be invitation for other homeowners in the neighbourhood to take advantage of it - and dump some of their own, typically bulky, unwanted rubbish in it. This cheeky act is usually done very discretely - and almost always at night under the cover of darkness. This can be really annoying for the homeowner who hired the skip in the first place - for obvious reasons. For example - a few years ago - my next-door neighbour had his roof re-done - and a skip was duly delivered to the outside of his house the evening before the work on his roof was supposed to start. The next morning - the skip was filled with an old three-seater sofa, an old 36-inch television set, and a couple of king-size bed matresses. Needless to say he wasn’t happy - because the skip was full - and of other people’s rubbish!

It seems that the culprits are never people in your own street - they are typically people from nearby streets - or a few streets away. You see, word travels fast when there’s a skip in the neighbourhood. These days it’s common to see skips covered with tarpaulin - securely tied down at night to deter this sort of behaviour.

I smiled as I walked past a skip on the way to the bus stop this morning.

Posted by jag at March 17, 2004 08:22 AM