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Alpha1 wrote:Sorry but I find that hard to believe I live 30 minutes drive from Durham. I actually live in Cleveland. Cleveland was a couple of years ago a nightmare to deal with. They employed a couple of civilian inquiry officers and the Guy in charge changed. Cleveland is now at the top of the league in dealing with certificates etc. It's nothing to do with miners strikes or Margaret Thatcher it's down to mismanagement. I am due for retirement I would love to have a go at putting it right arses would be kicked I tell you not. The police still recoiling from 2012 is bull s***.

I always check the times of your posts, Dave, just to check if it’s “whiskey o’clock” or not...

Yesterday I got my 8 week extension letter for FAC and SGC certs BUT nothing about my Blaack Powder licence. I queried this and received the following:

'We cannot issue an extension for your Explosives certificate, however you don’t need to worry as it has corrected on our system. Your certificate you have in your possession will obviously have the original date on and unfortunately you won’t be able to purchase any BP with this as it will be expired, but you are covered for current possession of any you have with the system.

Your application is still awaiting checks which is the initial stage and as you are aware we have a backlog; so it may take longer than usual.'

Sounds a bit dubious to me!!!

Sim G wrote:

Alpha1 wrote:Sorry but I find that hard to believe I live 30 minutes drive from Durham. I actually live in Cleveland. Cleveland was a couple of years ago a nightmare to deal with. They employed a couple of civilian inquiry officers and the Guy in charge changed. Cleveland is now at the top of the league in dealing with certificates etc. It's nothing to do with miners strikes or Margaret Thatcher it's down to mismanagement. I am due for retirement I would love to have a go at putting it right arses would be kicked I tell you not. The police still recoiling from 2012 is bull s***.

I always check the times of your posts, Dave, just to check if it’s “whiskey o’clock” or not...

Nothing to do with Whisky I suffer badly with tinnitus I have a jet engine running in my left ear. I dont go to bed unless I am exhausted there is no point I just lay awake listening to it roaring. I never go to bed before 01:00am its pointless. Durham licensing is down to bad management and maybe short staffing or incompetent staff.

dromia wrote:Durham were a disaster before Horden as the police man selling guns before showed.

If firearms certification was working properly that should never have happened, they almost encouraged it.

I can't remember the exact turn of phrase but the judge basically called the then manager a liar.

They may have been somewhat more user friendly then but they were so sloppy in decisions, management and record keeping they were a disaster waiting to happen.

Hells teeth firearms licensing core business isn't difficult, it is basic admin and has been going on for years running a decent set up shouldn't be difficult other forces manage it even the tory robbing of resources over the past decade.

In fairness he was doing shooters, and those wanting to dispose of firearms a favour. Should he have been doing it at police stations, no, was there any actual risk to the public, no, did any of the sales go to non-certificate holders, no, where the entire FLD and senior officers of the force unaware of his actions, no.

Well with my OWA cheque arriving and promptly burning a hole in my pocket I rang Durham FLD to check on the progress of my renewal as my extra 8 weeks runs out at the start of April and I still haven't had a visit/phone interview.

I was told in no uncertain terms that it would not be done before then and could expect a S7 permit. Apparently they are still dealing with renewals that were put in a year ago......

Complaint to the PCC and CC incoming!!!

Blackstuff wrote:

dromia wrote:Durham were a disaster before Horden as the police man selling guns before showed.

If firearms certification was working properly that should never have happened, they almost encouraged it.

I can't remember the exact turn of phrase but the judge basically called the then manager a liar.

They may have been somewhat more user friendly then but they were so sloppy in decisions, management and record keeping they were a disaster waiting to happen.

Hells teeth firearms licensing core business isn't difficult, it is basic admin and has been going on for years running a decent set up shouldn't be difficult other forces manage it even the tory robbing of resources over the past decade.

In fairness he was doing shooters, and those wanting to dispose of firearms a favour. Should he have been doing it at police stations, no, was there any actual risk to the public, no, did any of the sales go to non-certificate holders, no, where the entire FLD and senior officers of the force unaware of his actions, no.

I think the crime he committed though was he was deemed to be stealing from the chief inspector as the items had been handed or would have been handed in to the police. He was then selling them and pocketing the cash.

Lever357 wrote:

Blackstuff wrote:

dromia wrote:Durham were a disaster before Horden as the police man selling guns before showed.

If firearms certification was working properly that should never have happened, they almost encouraged it.

I can't remember the exact turn of phrase but the judge basically called the then manager a liar.

They may have been somewhat more user friendly then but they were so sloppy in decisions, management and record keeping they were a disaster waiting to happen.

Hells teeth firearms licensing core business isn't difficult, it is basic admin and has been going on for years running a decent set up shouldn't be difficult other forces manage it even the tory robbing of resources over the past decade.

In fairness he was doing shooters, and those wanting to dispose of firearms a favour. Should he have been doing it at police stations, no, was there any actual risk to the public, no, did any of the sales go to non-certificate holders, no, where the entire FLD and senior officers of the force unaware of his actions, no.

I think the crime he committed though was he was deemed to be stealing from the chief inspector as the items had been handed or would have been handed in to the police. He was then selling them and pocketing the cash.

That wasn't the case. The offence he was charged with was misconduct in a public office and in the end it was boiled down to doing things on company time he should've been doing in his own time. He didn't keep any of the money, except when people gave him petrol/pint money for transporting the stuff around.

Blackstuff wrote:Well with my OWA cheque arriving and promptly burning a hole in my pocket I rang Durham FLD to check on the progress of my renewal as my extra 8 weeks runs out at the start of April and I still haven't had a visit/phone interview.

I was told in no uncertain terms that it would not be done before then and could expect a S7 permit. Apparently they are still dealing with renewals that were put in a year ago......

Complaint to the PCC and CC incoming!!!

Good luck with that.
I put in a complaint to both of those worthies and never even got a reply!

Mark, when did you put your renewal in?

Mine expires end of April, I sent the renewal in first week of December, not heard anything apart from they couldn't find my photo I'd attached to it!.

Last week in October 2020, FAC expired in Feb 2021, extension expires first week in April. Money for new guns burning hole in pocket now.

I contacted several members of my PSG club who have had recent renewals (i.e. within the CV19 restrictions) and those in Northumbria (3), N. Yorks (1) and Cumbria (2) have all had their renewals done within time.

All of those in Durham and the one person in Cleveland needed S7s as they didn't get them turned around even with the 8 week extension Most said their tickets came in 1 or 2 weeks after the S7 was issued.

I don't know whats happened to Durham, I half remembered BASC doing a 'league' table of the time each force was taking to process grants and renewals, on searching for it the only one I could find was from 2017 and they were one of the best FLDs in the country, performance-wise.

My advice; if you can afford to, get stocked up on ammo/primers/powders etc now while you can!

And people wonder why i refuse to have a coterminous certificate(!)