I've posted about Prince Street before, it's probably one of the most photographed spots in the old town. A Georgian archway leading to a pleasant little row of houses. Naturally it's all listed buildings; grade 2 protected. So in a well ordered society a Council would never, ever install five gas meters with plastic covers right slap bang in the middle of a tourist attraction. But you have never come across an organisation quite like Hull City Council. And to add insult to injury once the Council realised that what they had done required planning permission it set about applying to itself for retrospective permission to vandalise the neighbourhood. Well this was too much for anybody to take lying down, even one long serving Councillor who can normally be relied on to back up any silly move from HCC said it was 'stupid'. Outrage was being shown, words like 'crass' and 'deplorable' were being bandied about in the local paper. One objector described the meters as looking like a men's urinal ...
The Council realising the jig was up have now decided to remove these meters admitting that this should not have happened as "the gas meter boxes are not in keeping with the surrounding listed buildings". (You don't say!) Which is all well and good if this were such a rare occurrence but such acts of gross stupidity seem to be the modus operandi of HCC; well it's only public money so they just don't care.
No Council officers were injured in the making of this post nor have any lost their jobs unfortunately
The Council realising the jig was up have now decided to remove these meters admitting that this should not have happened as "the gas meter boxes are not in keeping with the surrounding listed buildings". (You don't say!) Which is all well and good if this were such a rare occurrence but such acts of gross stupidity seem to be the modus operandi of HCC; well it's only public money so they just don't care.
No Council officers were injured in the making of this post nor have any lost their jobs unfortunately
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Oh, brother!
ReplyDeleteNever underestimate the stupidity of someone in civil service. Last year someone here in the city's bureaucracy had sculptures erected in a park meant to honour a man who already had the park and a community centre named after him. Instead of the proper athletic equipment the sculptures should have been about, they looked like giant tennis rackets. The bureaucrat mistook this man for a tennis player with the same name. The sculptures are still there. They look like a Quidditch pitch.