Commiserations to Linda Martin of Wilton, who recently fell foul of the knobheads running Wiltshire Council.
Mrs Martin wanted to brighten up the town centre and so put up some hanging baskets around trees in the Market Place, they had small sponsorship signs from local stores on them.
Can you guess what happened next children?
Yes, that's right, the council ordered her to take them down because they are a "health and safety hazard" and may also damage the tress....oh, and the "proper procedures" hadn't been followed wrt placing "adverts" on them.
MP John Glen is of the view that it was a ridiculous way to deal with such a matter.
Town councillor Peter Edge said:
"The sponsorship signs were the size of a Post-it Note and the wiring wasn't damaging the trees in any way.
Somebody at Wiltshire Council wants to get a life."
A Wiltshire spokesman said:
"The town council asked us to look at their concerns regarding the way the baskets were attached to the young trees. We confirmed that they could harm the trees and were a potential hazard to pedestrians, especially the partially-sighted.
We are here to support people who want to make a positive difference to their communities and we are happy to work with the town council to find an alternative way of displaying the baskets."
Bollocks!
If someone is that poorly sighted, then they are just as likely to walk into the tree anyway. Therefore the logical conclusion would be to chop down the trees.
I suspect that some sad loser didn't like the fact that "permission" had not been formally given for the adverts, and that the health and safety issue is being used as cover for a jobsworth's spite.
Councils, as ever, demonstrating that they have become the enemy of the people!
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Visit The Joy of Lard and indulge your lard fantasies.
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I think you are spot on Ken....I am sure that had the person contacted the council first, she would have given up because of the amount of red tape she would have come up against and the number of hoops she would've had to jump through.
ReplyDeleteIt strikes me that the state wants to supply or ration everything in order to make the population more and more dependent......Soon people will be too afraid to fart without permission through fear of breaking some green law or other.
I suspect if councils only did what they were set up to do, then we would all be freer, happier and a darn sight richer. Mind you, Hi-Viz clothing makers would be out of business....Ahhh shame:-)
Say no to Hi-Viz.
Whilst Councils persist in their pathetic ways, Cameron's BIG SOCIETY hasn't got a chance.
ReplyDelete"We are here to support people who want to make a positive difference to their communities and we are happy to work with the town council to find an alternative way of displaying the baskets."
ReplyDeleteBut they DON'T support such people, Ken. Instead, as I am sure you will agree, they do their hardest to make life impossible for them! Why can't these jobsworths and prodnoses keep out of people's business and just let them get along with their lives?
Enemies of the people indeed, Ken!
If I had encountered these kind of problems during the construction of our famous 'hanging gardens of Babylon', I would have had those jobsworths responsible executed in a very painful manner!
ReplyDeleteThis particular council is the same one that a few months ago was trying to do a woman for theft because she tidied up a flower bed where she sits and has her lunch. Her crime? Taking away the dead plants she had trimmed etc. in a black bin liner!
ReplyDeleteI has a similar problem with the hanging basket I nailed to the front of our house. For a while I kept banging my head on it when getting stuff out of the car parked next to it.
ReplyDeleteDid I remove said danger? No, lunatic that I am, I simply used the ample pain of head-butting said flowery ornament to remind myself it was there, until one day, magically, I learned to stop doing it.
Somehow, through all this, I survived!
Plus I have the pleasure of watching others bang their heads on it, outwardly sympathising whilst secretly laughing at them. Bonus!
In Nanny's world I guess I should have installed a sign at the end of the driveway saying "Beware: hanging basket hazard.". However, the sign itself could be a danger, so where would I install the sign to warn of the other sign? Continued ad infinitum...
Utterly pathetic! I didn't know the council are now the flower police!
ReplyDelete