Tuesday, 18 August 2009

How close is St John now?

Stefan Gatward of Tunbridge Wells got fed up with the street name where he lived being wrongly displayed as 'St Johns Close', and went out with brush and paint to instate the lost apostrophe. One of his neighbours remonstrated with him, objecting that post would no longer be delivered. And since it seems the neighbourhood is chock-full of retired military, there could be a protracted campaign underway. What fun.

This story was on the Beeb at about 0720 this morning but took some hours to reach t'interweb, here for example, or in the Mail here, and Telegraph here.

To help explain the sweet irony for readers beyond these barmy shires - the town of Tunbridge Wells is commonly referred to as the home of the archetypal middle-England reactionary, with the phrase 'Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells' widely used as an ironic sign-off. If nothing else, we English have had a lot of practice at self-parody.

18 Aug 2009 21:47:56 | Vignettes

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Good legislation makes good neighbours? Planning Resource announces a Scottish government consultation about hedge disputes, in an article by Matt Scotland (who else?). The consultation follows the efforts of a campaign group called Scothedge, which offers this report on a recent (July 2009) survey of its members. Question 1. Approach to the Hedge Owner. All respondents have asked the hedge owner to sort the problem. Question 2. Response from the Hedge Owner Helpful 5% Unhelpful 55% Hostile 38% Comment. The helpful responses came from cases where the problem was overcome by the arrival of new neighbours. 55% of respondents could take their cases no further because the hedge/tree owner would not do anything. A serious 38% were hostile to any approach, resorting to verbal and even physical abuse sometimes requiring police intervention. This is the Antisocial Behaviour dimension and it occurs because it can. Question 9. Do you still speak to your neighbour? 40% of respondents remain able to speak to their neighbours whilst in dispute. 60% find speaking to their neighbours both unproductive and unpleasant. Understandably they withdraw from making any further attempt. The report blames the absence of appropriate legislation in Scotland, claiming that 'there is no vehicle for “arms length” resolution which would dilute the personality and vested interests of the protagonists.' The expectation is that if there is legislation, it will have a fairly direct impact on neighbourly relations, in that a hostile response by a neighbour to a representation about a tree or hedge could quickly be referred to a council with all parties aware of the available powers. Would legislation eradicate much of the hostility and contribute to improved neighbourly relations? The classic source here is a book called Order without law, by Robert Ellickson. Ellickson explored the preference among rural neighbours for informal procedures and customs rather than legal measures to govern minor irritations such as cattle-trespass or boundary-fence disputes. I suspect this points to subtle differences in urban areas where local norms and informal interactions are not well-established but other compensating social relations are readily available.

Kevin Harris

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