Dear Councillors,
I am writing to you as my council representatives in relation to a letter I received from Nobby Nobody on Sunday October 19th. As you very probably know, Mr Nobody is a council officer and an engineer who deals with Highway Regulations etc.. His letter was headed "Sticks Placed in The Highway Verge Outside Pudding Towers Mansion". (Ref HR/DW/Yellow Brick Road/JS)
In the letter, I was told to remove some little white sticks that I have been putting in the verge outside our house for twenty five years without any previous complaint. The reason I have always placed sticks there is to discourage drivers from parking on the verge and thereby ruining its appearance. It has been a constant battle for a quarter of a century. As well as making the sticks, painting them and hammering them into the verge I have also regularly cut the grass outside our house, removed litter and dog faeces and generally tried hard to maintain it. All that I believe I have done is to take pride in my neighbourhood and make it look a bit nicer.
I am attaching two photos to this email. Please look at them. One is of the scene outside my house and the other is from lower down the top section of Yellow Brick Road - showing the mess that results when vehicles are regularly parked on our grass verges.
I know that in a seemingly haphazard fashion, ugly squat wooden bollards have been placed by Sheffield City Council on some other verges in the area - presumably to discourage parking on those verges. I sincerely hope that as a result of the issues I am raising, we do not find a couple of these things outside our house in the coming months. They are themselves an eyesore and a mistaken experiment in my estimation.
Shouldn't Mr Nobody be applying his energy to tackling drivers who park on verges rather than to residents who are trying their best to maintain their environments? Threatening me with stick removal costs seems to represent a cockeyed outlook on the state of our grass verges. Section 149 of the Highways Act 1980 was surely never intended to penalise decent citizens like myself and my next door neighbours who have been similarly threatened by Mr Nobody.
Yours truly,
Sir Yorkshire Pudding
(Lord of the Manor)
STOP PRESS - I have already received an email response from Penny Baker - the middle one of the three councillors. She wants to talk to me about this matter.
Good luck, it looks as if you'll need it she looks a bit like a Clegite.
ReplyDeleteShe is a Cleggite! Were they in "Dr Who"?
DeleteNo your lot elected the idiot. Not you personally but a fair number of your neighbours..
DeleteSurely you can recall our lying, deceiving deputy PM. I thought he lived within pissing distance of YP Towers.
Okay are the Libs then?
Good grief! These jobsworths really need to get a life! I wish you luck with your fight, YP. If you don't get anywhere with it, let me know and I'll come over and chain myself to railings with you and Shirley and your neighbours. That should do it! It worked for the suffragettes - eventually.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should chain ourselves to the little white sticks. I hope you bring a placard but not in Welsh please!
DeleteTwenty-five years huh? Will you be baking scones for Penny when she calls for tea?
ReplyDeleteI spoke with Penny on the phone this evening so no scones and I wouldn't make them for a Liberal Democrat anyway Carol!
DeleteGood for you, Yorky! Isn't illegal to park on the verges? It is here.
ReplyDeleteMs Penny looks like she's verging on something! ;)
All the best, Yorky. Stand up for your rights...and stand firm!
The law is very unclear on verge parking Lee but they shouldn't have waved a red flag in front of a bull like me. I am on a mission now.
DeleteI don't like the look of that guy with the bad haircut. Good luck YP! We're all behind you. Power to the People!!
ReplyDeleteThat is a Liberal Democrat haircut Molly and the two women have the typical characteristics of Liberal Democrat women. I hope that you don't look like them!
DeletePerhaps the problem is that the white sticks are too small ? People might fall over them and sue under Health and Safety. You need big tall sticks painted with red and white stripes so people can see them ! I bet they quote Health and Safety in there somewhere to you.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking of tethering a hungry Rottweiller to the verge. He'll be barking and hungry, frothing from the mouth with teeth bared. I shall call him Tony.
DeleteI shall comment on this post separately but one of the consideration facing the servant of all the people who wrote the original letter is the very point Helsie made. It can be happily ignored by officials but once brought to their attention then it is open to someone to sue and, believe me (I was around with the first English 'pavement' case back in the sixties) people do. The official concerned would have been pilloried by the press for dereliction of duty had that happened just as he is being pilloried for undertaking his duties now. Ironically the large post suggestion would almost certainly (in my humble opinion) stand up in court.
DeleteThey look perfectly normal people to me (you should see some of our councillors!), and maybe Penny is a reasonable woman who can be talked to in a reasonable manner. At least she replied quickly, and spoke to you already. Such things take MONTHS over here.
ReplyDeletePenny told me that her own husband is similarly protective about the grass outside their own house but having fought the issue before he knows that the law is an ass in this regard. As soon as the current pavement tarmacking team are done I shall be knocking my sticks back into the verge and I shall also be taking photos of cars parked on our verges and sending them on to the council.
DeleteWhat I was originally going to do was simply congratulate you on your approach. It's certainly the one most likely to succeed in the circumstances.
ReplyDeleteWhat sometimes gets a quick response (over here anyway), is making your complaint public - thanks to the beauty and ease of social networks (or failing that, a letter to the local paper).
ReplyDelete