I've just emailed our local paper...
Cressers
Posts: 1,329
I suppose that makes me offically middle-aged! 
Sir,
After the recent snow and ice disruption lessons must be learned by those in charge of the emergency response. Chichester city centre was rendered a hazzardous ice rink because not enough of the snow was cleared while it was still unfrozen and relatively easy to move, nor were paths cleared across the main streets or around the Cross to enable people to walk in relative safety.
Once some paths were cleared some unscrupulous retailers wasted no time in placing their A-boards on the few cleared areas, as if their selfish need for advertising took priority over public safety. Once the thaw began, like mushrooms after the rain, a new crop of these pavement hazzards to the visually and mobility-impaired, as well as parents with children in prams or buggies, appeared.
On enquiry, I was informed that an 'ongoing consultation' was in progress. This consultation seems to be taking place over a geologic timescale. Meanwhile these anti-social boards proliferate, with some particularly reprehensible examples being so intent on claiming 'their' space to the exclusion of legitimate pavement users that they padlock their obstructions to street fittings.
What must it take for something to be done? Must there be an injury with the resulting litigation before our city centre manager takes time away from the vital task of ensuring that the city's shop fronts are nicely painted? While we are waiting, and no doubt we will have to wait quite some time while she gushes about another shop moving from one site to another, I have a suggestion as to how we can act. No doubt you are, as I am, annoyed by the incessant drizzle of price comparison site adverts. I have made a positive decision never to use any of the services advertised in such a way. If we became 'brand beware' rather than 'brand aware' of the places that advertise by obstructing and inconviniencing us with their A-boards, and refused to do any business with them, I'm sure that the pavements would be cleared overnight!
Sir,
After the recent snow and ice disruption lessons must be learned by those in charge of the emergency response. Chichester city centre was rendered a hazzardous ice rink because not enough of the snow was cleared while it was still unfrozen and relatively easy to move, nor were paths cleared across the main streets or around the Cross to enable people to walk in relative safety.
Once some paths were cleared some unscrupulous retailers wasted no time in placing their A-boards on the few cleared areas, as if their selfish need for advertising took priority over public safety. Once the thaw began, like mushrooms after the rain, a new crop of these pavement hazzards to the visually and mobility-impaired, as well as parents with children in prams or buggies, appeared.
On enquiry, I was informed that an 'ongoing consultation' was in progress. This consultation seems to be taking place over a geologic timescale. Meanwhile these anti-social boards proliferate, with some particularly reprehensible examples being so intent on claiming 'their' space to the exclusion of legitimate pavement users that they padlock their obstructions to street fittings.
What must it take for something to be done? Must there be an injury with the resulting litigation before our city centre manager takes time away from the vital task of ensuring that the city's shop fronts are nicely painted? While we are waiting, and no doubt we will have to wait quite some time while she gushes about another shop moving from one site to another, I have a suggestion as to how we can act. No doubt you are, as I am, annoyed by the incessant drizzle of price comparison site adverts. I have made a positive decision never to use any of the services advertised in such a way. If we became 'brand beware' rather than 'brand aware' of the places that advertise by obstructing and inconviniencing us with their A-boards, and refused to do any business with them, I'm sure that the pavements would be cleared overnight!
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...the bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created: Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon...0 -
Dude
I doubt the council managed to read beyond the first sentence.
Its a legit health and safety issue reading stuff so boring and uninspiring it leads to depression and suicide.
Why dont you join the council and work tirlessly for no pay to change things for the better. The local planing or highways department would probably appreciate a new counicillor.0 -
Hazardous has one 'z'; not two.Ben
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