UK Window Cleaner Issues

Jim Richards, a window cleaner, one of the parents from Manor Community School and Nursery is campaigning against parents who drop off or pick up their children outside the school.

Ex-bouncer takes on school parking pests at Manor Road Community Primary School in Keary Road, Swanscombe: A former bouncer has started a campaign to shame fellow parents who are putting schoolchildren in danger with their irresponsible parking. Jim Richards, 45, from Swanscombe knows how to keep calm in stressful situations.

Working as a doorman for 17 years, the father-of-two is used to people being angry with him, and that experience has certainly come in handy over the past week. Mr Richards has a six-year-old daughter at Manor Road Community Primary School in Keary Road, Swanscombe, and when he dropped her off, he realised people were parking on yellow zig-zag lines close to the school entrance, making it difficult for children to cross the road safely.

He confronted some of the parents and after disagreements with those unwilling to park elsewhere, Mr Richards decided enough was enough and started taking photos of the cars he believed were causing a problem. He then put them on Facebook for all to see, including via the Swanscombe Dwellers community page. He claims there has been a difference since he started the campaign just over a week ago, with some parents arriving earlier to drop off their children or parking elsewhere.

Some people have lost their rag with Mr Richards, but his experience as a doorman has allowed him to keep his cool. He said: “I think it really does help. I don’t get irate because you can’t as a doorman. “It is more about people management. It was quite easy talking to people even when they were shouting at you.”

Mr Richards, who is now a window cleaner, said he “took it on himself” to do something on behalf of concerned parents. He said: “There’s mums and dads who haven’t got a voice but think the same thing. "Dartford council got involved and said the pictures should have been passed straight to the authorities, but we were finding that these people were parking there no matter what. “It has got a lot of support from the parents.”

Knife brandished in window cleaners' argument: An unlawful knife was brandished during a heated argument between local window cleaners outside a public house, a court has heard. James William Howard Paill, aged 49, of Windmill View, Capel Iwan, Newcastle Emlyn, pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon in a public place, when he appeared before Aberystwyth magistrates on Wednesday. The court heard that an argument started outside the Nags Head Public House, Abercych, on April 4. Sarah Lewis, prosecuting, said: “The defendant got the knife out of his pocket and witnesses saw him wielding it in a threatening manner.”

Stephen Welch, defending, told the court the implement had several tools, and his client had always carried it in relation to his work in the window cleaning business. Paill became unable to work with his hands following a skiing accident, and used the implement to help him with everyday tasks such as opening bottles. Mr Welch said: “He became involved in a argument with the owner of another window cleaning business, that escalated to the extent that the other man’s colleagues appeared on the scene. He made it known that he had the implement and brandished it, but he never intended to use it.”

The court heard that the knife was unlawful because it had a fixed blade. Mr Welch added: “He just wanted to ward off several men who were in drink. He apologises. He thought what he had was lawful, he was surprised to find it was not.” Mr Welch added: “The knife was taken out after he had been hit, but he accepts he should not have it on him in the first place.” Following a report from the probation service, magistrates imposed a six week custodial sentence, suspended for 12 months, with a community order and supervision requirement. He was also ordered to pay £85 court costs and a £80 victim surcharge. A destruction order was made for the knife.

Big Issue seller - I’d really like to get myself a nice window-cleaning round.

Stephen Wylde, 54, Market Street, Wells, Somerset:  I live in a tent just outside Wells. I like the peaceful countryside, the basic way of living – I just have to get decent clothing from charity shops in winter. From where I’ve been before, in London, you couldn’t really pitch a tent anywhere because the youth would come and damage it. Here I’m able to be tucked out of the way, which I need because I haven’t got a front door. I’ve got a dog but she’s got breast cancer and she’s old. I’m looking after her, getting her decent food. I don’t take her to the pitch because I like to stand there on my own two feet.

As a kid I used to like going round with lads, shooting targets with pellet guns, not birds or anything. I liked racquet games and climbing up the scree slopes in Wales. I liked woodwork and have done a bit of that over the years. I was part of a community, travelling around the sites with horses or trucks. It was all right ’til I started getting into heavy drinking, so I came away from it. You have to or it’s an ongoing circle. I got myself off of drink, tobacco as well. I’m trying to look ahead.

I’d really like to get myself a nice window-cleaning round. I made attempts at getting one together: Jobseeker’s Allowance offered to lend me £1000 to buy a van and get myself out there but because my address is a PO Box I can’t get a bank account and so couldn’t get the money.

That’s when I started doing The Big Issue. It’s helping me keep off things I shouldn’t be getting on and I’m managing to pay a couple of debts and feed myself. I’m keeping myself above water. I saved up and got myself a pass for the Bishop’s Palace at Wells Cathedral, where I can go to sit in the garden and eat my sandwiches, get a bit of peace and quiet away from the hustle and bustle. It costs but it gives me a bit of sanctuary.

I have to walk three miles to my tent and sometimes go up a hill with a panoramic view. I love England. We’re such a diverse culture, bits of everyone in the world because everyone has passed through this island for centuries. My customers... They are a diverse lot. I’m starting to build up a pitch, getting regulars. On my pitch... On market days I sell from about 9.30am to 4.30pm.

New Challenging Skyscrapers For The High Rise Window Cleaner

This artist's drawing of the Parinee Ism shows that today's skyscraper designers don't think small.

Skyscrapers are changing with the times. Here's a look at some of the towers constructed or proposed elsewhere in the world, including one with an infinity pool on every balcony. Warning to acrophobic types: Dive in with extreme caution. About all that glass: We've got one question about these skyscrapers, though: Who's going to wash the windows? If you missed Oregonian writer Kelly House's profile of a Portlander who deep-sixed his fear of heights to take a job as a high-rise window washer, be sure to check it out. You won't take clean windows for granted ever again. Click pictures to enlarge.

The outline and the ripple pattern can be conceived as an abstract representation of the symbol Ohm (Ω). The ripple effect usually generates a vortex-like space in the center. The tower design is trying to recapture the essence of this space by creating a large void in the middle along with a special designed clubhouse form.

Balcony pools: A 37-story residential high-rise designed by James Law Cybertecture for real estate company Wadhwa Group in Mumbai, India, has a striking feature: glass-enclosed swimming pools on the balconies. The planned Parinee Ism has a fluid-looking exterior that's "inspired by the ripple effect generated by water droplets, which is also known as the capillary wave," according to the firm's description.

Designed by MAD Architects, the Absolute Towers located in Toronto, Canada are nearing completion.

Tall trend: When a high-rise project is called the "Marilyn Monroe," the moniker tends to grab your attention. The curvaceous Absolute Towers, a pair of towers nearing completion in a Toronto suburb, were among those selected June 13 as the best tall buildings in the world by the Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. 

The council, a group of architects and structural engineers, "said there had been a 'renaissance' in skyscraper development," according to Reuters. The 88 towers taller than 200 meters (656 feet) that were completed in 2011 set a record; in 2005 there were only 32 such projects. The council projects that 96 tall buildings will be completed this year, many of them in China.

The buildings are not the conventional high-rise. Take, for instance, the Al Bahar Towers in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, which won an innovation award. The computer-controlled facade of the 29-story structure opens and closes in response to the movement of the sun. The facade is a reinterpretation of the traditional Islamic mashribyia, a wood lattice screen that offers privacy and controls glare and solar gain.

Beach and Howe mixed-used tower.

Vancouver, B.C., skyline: BIG's proposal for the Beach and Howe mixed-used tower next to the Granville Street Bridge in downtown Vancouver takes a twist -- literally. The structure's tight, triangular footprint is due to a 30-meter setback from the bridge -- keeping balconies away from the noise and exhaust fumes of bridge traffic -- and to concerns about not blocking sunlight to an adjacent park. As the tower ascends above the bridge, though, it expands and cantilevers over the site.

The 49-storey residential building will have a twisted form that is set back from the adjacent motorway flyover to prevent any windows or balconies from overlooking it.

"The resultant silhouette has a unique appearance that changes from every angle and resembles a curtain being drawn aside, welcoming people as they enter the city from the bridge," says a BIG press release, which also describes the tower's podium base as a "mixed-use urban village." Bjarke Ingels, BIG founding partner, says the project reclaims a site beneath the bridges that would otherwise be only a "lifeless 'black hole' in the urban fabric." The aim is to seek LEED gold certification for the building.

Danish architects BIG have designed a towering apartment block for Seoul that will be shaped like a hashtag.

Cross Towers: Another BIG proposal, this one in Seoul, also takes an interesting form. "The Cross Towers constitute a three-dimensional urban community of interlocking horizontal and vertical towers," according to Ingels. "Three public bridges connect two slender towers at different levels -- underground, at the street and in the sky," Ingels says in a press release. "Catering to the demands and desires of different residents, age groups and cultures the bridges are landscaped and equipped for a variety of activities traditionally restricted to the ground."

Sky gardens envisioned on the Cross Towers.

The bridges between towers would provide space for sky gardens. "The typical tower inherently removes life from the city it occupies. ... social interactions occur only in lobbies or awkward elevator rides," says Thomas Christoffersen, BIG partner in charge. "We propose a building that ... triples the amount of social interaction and reintroduces the idea of neighborhood within the tower complex."