Tit-bits – gutter press

Big news from the Town Hall: Hackney has discovered the cherry picker. Until now, clearing 10 metres of guttering on a council block meant £4,000 of scaffolding. An operative on a hydraulic platform has just done 170 metres and 12 downpipes in a day for £1,500 — a breakthrough the council is so thrilled with it has issued a press release, a photo, a video and a quote about setting ‘a new precedent London-wide’. It’s the second such leap forward this year, after the recent revelation that a drone can look at a roof.