PC Jack and PC Jill.

From a local paper today.

Police officers have been sent on courses on how to climb 3ft up a ladder to install anti-speeding devices. Forty-five Lancashire police employees have gone on the two-hour health and safety seminars to teach them how to hang smiley-face speed indicator signs (Spids) on posts by the roadside.

Workers had been erecting the portable signs for months without ladder training until health and safety bosses stepped in. Staff were then banned from moving the signs between locations until they had special training – leaving devices, which cost up to £3,500, dormant across the county for four months. A police statement, issued as part of a Freedom of Information request, says: "It would appear that, although working at less than one metre above ground level, staff should have been on a ladder training course. "It is fair to say that risks associated with deployment of a Spid sign have not changed, but the risks associated with working at height were not fully appreciated initially." Questions are being raised about the policy by MPs and pressure groups. Lancaster and Wyre MP Ben Wallace said: "It's another example of the tail wagging the dog, of bureaucracy gone mad. "It beggars belief that bureaucracy stands in the way of common sense, even when it concerns our police force." Lancashire police said proper training courses had also been introduced because some of the signs had not been mounted correctly and could not detect all oncoming traffic. Seminars include advice on what type of ladder should be used, how to carry devices safely and how to set up and maintain signs. Police officers and civilian workers have also been warned they must wear high-visibility jackets and leggings and cone off the area when installing signs in bad weather – in case pedestrians bump into their ladder. Eighty-two parish council volunteers and two private contractors have also gone on the courses, organised by the police, Lancashire County Council and Lancashire Fire and Rescue, which manages the ladder training.

I assume that the next thing will be courses in down to climb down the ladder?