So my “10-Day Window” expired in early September and I was wondering when I would hear from TV Licensing again. On Friday the letter arrived and it wasn’t just any letter. No, they pulled out all the stops and sent me a red letter:
Red letter suspiciously looking like TV Licensing
No plain envelope, but a bright red one. From the “The Legal Occupier” I knew it was going to be from TV Licensing. So what would they say this time?
WE DID NOT HEAR FROM YOU. This address is still unlicensed
No, really? You don’t say. Of course it is unlicensed. Because it doesn’t need one. Which I would have told you ages ago if you had been a bit friendlier. But you chose violence.
Red letter We did not hear from you
We wrote to tell you we were giving you 10 days to get correctly licensed – free from the risk of an enforcement visit.
Which I did. I didn’t get a licence as I don’t need one. So my side of the job is done as far as I’m concerned.
Your case has been escalated to the Enforcement Team covering [full post code], so you can now expect a visit from an Enforcement Officer.
Wow, a whole team covering 29 flats? Isn’t that a bit much? I’ll be waiting. Well, not really. If they’re lucky I’ll even open the door, to tell that no licence is needed at my address. And that would be it.
PS: I expect no visit any time soon will happen, just more pointless threatening letters.
Well, well, well, I hadn’t expected to write about TV Licensing again so quickly after my TV Licensing are back with a vengeance post from just three weeks ago. But it seems they have started a new tactic at least I haven’t seen before. Two days ago I found this letter in my mail:
10 Day Window?
From the “The Legal Occupier” I could tell it was from TV Licensing. But what was new was the window on the envelope, revealing a “10-Day Window”, but not more. So I was intrigued. What was the 10 day window for? Was it going to be the window the threatened TV Licensing Inspector would finally visit me?
Turns out, no. They are giving me a 10-day window to get correctly licensed. Which I already am. This is what they say:
The 10-Day Window letter
They claim they put my “case” on hold for 10 days, during which I won’t have to expect a visit by the dreaded TV Licensing Inspector. How nice. That makes me sleep better (no, sadly not). And without a TV Licence I may be breaking the law. Except I’m not. I don’t do anything from their list as I’ve got better things to do, like writing this blog post.
Apparently I ONLY have until the 4th of September to act. Well, I’m acting now and I’m doing …. nothing.
Let’s see what happens after the 4th of September.
Very long term readers of this blog might remember the fun I had with TV Licensing in the early to mid 2000s. On the previous now archived iteration of this blog there’s a whole collection of The TV Licensing Saga. Towards the end of it the problem kind of got resolved and they left me in peace for a while. When I moved into my current flat I registered my new address as not needing a TV Licence and all was good for a while. Not any more…..
TV Licensing is back with a vengeance. And they haven’t changed one bit, if anything they’ve gotten worse.
But let’s take a step back: When I registered my current address as not needing a TV Licence I did so online, which also required me to give them my email. From then on every once I while I received an unfriendly email suggesting I was lying to them, but at least it had a link to the page where I could tell them I still don’t need one. So far, so moderately good.
Early this year that changed.
Instead of the unfriendly email I received a letter claiming something had changed at my address/household (no, it hadn’t. Nothing had changed). Initially I thought that was just a mistake and the usual accusatory email would arrive soon. Not so. Soon another letter arrived. And another. And another. And another. And another. And another. And another.
And today this one arrived:
Threatening TV Licensing Letter
OFFICIAL NOTICE
Really? I’m pretty sure there’s nothing “official” about you, you’re a private company working on behalf of the BBC.
You are breaching the Communications Act 2003 if you do not have a TV Licence to cover you for: – Watching or recording live TV on any channel or device – Everything on BBC iPlayer at [address]
Thing is, that only applies if you’re doing any of the two things they list. Which I don’t. So it doesn’t apply.
The rest of the letter continues in a similar tone. It does give a link to declare that no TV Licence is needed, but with the barrage and tone of their letters quite frankly I can’t be bothered. I’m just going to let them continue wasting their money on sending those letters. Their problem, not mine.
More importantly though, I think these letters are bad. They are deliberately designed and written to scare people into getting a TV Licence even if they don’t need one. Prime example the paragraph quoted above. Mentioning a law, implying that the recipient is breaking the law with confusing and threatening language, even if the recipient doesn’t need a TV Licence. I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a few people who don’t need one get one because they don’t understand the letters and get scared. That can’t be right.
Anyway, let’s see how this continues, if the threatened inspector ever turns up (past experience says no). I will continue shredding their letters (if I get another interesting one I might share it) and not watching live TV and/or iPlayer.
PS: Just to be clear, I’m not against the TV Licence per se. If I was watching live TV and/or using iPlayer I would happily pay it. But I don’t, so I don’t need to. What I object to are the practices of the TV Licencing contractors, Capita or whoever that is these days.
It had been far too long since I had last been out for a one of these, a local walk to see what comes up and take pictures. But this Saturday lunchtime I finally got my act together, installed the big 500mm lens with the 1.4 extender on the Nikon and went out. I had to realise I am quite out of practice, most of the pictures of birds in flight weren’t very good. Really need to get back into it, practice, practice and practice some more. At least I got a few decent ones of birds perched. And a curious Emu in a field. Here we go (click on the pictures for the large version carousel):
Red Kite perched in a treeBeautiful Red Kite in flightBuzzard in a treeEmu surrounded by tiny flies
I also spotted a Little Egret, unfortunately it was too far away to take pictures and by the time I had managed to get into a good position (quite challenging because of badly flooded footpaths etc) it had moved on, so I missed out on that one.
With spring hopefully just around the corner I hope this will kickstart me into getting out again. Fingers crossed there will be more posts with wildlife and nature pictures over the coming weeks and months.
In early January 2024 the lift bridge of the A340 Basingstoke Road over the Kennet and Avon canal in Aldermaston Wharf had to be removed for some major refurbishment work. During the initial preparation for its removal there wasn’t much to see, although I did manage to get some decent shots of the bare bridge in the afternoon light one day. Then on Friday 12/Jan/24 I was lucky enough to catch a good part of the loading of the bridge on to a trailer during my lunch break walk:
01 – Bare bridge from the side: View from the towpath while the bridge was being prepared for removal02 – Bare bridge from the road: The lifted up bridge seen from the A340 as it was being prepared for removal03 – Bridge on the towpath: The bridge on the towpath being prepared to be lifted on to the trailer04 – Bridge hoisted over a canal boat: I was surprised the allowed the canal boat to stay there, if anything had gone wrong the boat would have been crushed05 – Bridge over the canal (1): The massive mobile crane is starting to move the bridge over the canal06 – Bridge over the canal (2): A worker catching a rope to control the bridge while it is hoisted over the canal07 – Bridge over the canal (3): The bridge still over the canal, but starting to arrive on the other side08 – Bridge over the road: The bridge has arrived on the other side and is edging towards the trailer (hidden from view behind the cottage)09 – Bridge over the trailer (1): The bridge approaching the specially constructed trailer10 – Bridge over the trailer (2): A wider view of the bridge being loaded on to the trailer11 – Lift bridge on the trailer: Almost there, the bridge being lowered on to the trailer for transport to the workshop
The bridge will now receive some long overdue maintenance and improvements over a few weeks before being reinstalled in mid March 2024. I’m hoping to be lucky again and be out for my lunch break walk at the right time, but obviously can’t promise anything.
