Welcome to Little Britain (3)
Thursday, April 17, 2008 A reader writes:
I find it interesting that my local council (Rotherham) has seen fit to put signs on every bus stop in the town saying "It is against the law to smoke in this area" despite the fact that some of these bus stops are not "substantially enclosed". A lot of these bus stops consist of just a back wall and a roof, with no sides or front.
I have contacted the council to ask if anyone has been fined or cautioned for smoking in these bus stops, but they will not comment. I also asked if it is illegal to display signs saying that smoking is illegal in these bus stops when, according to the current legislation, it is not against the law to smoke there. They refuse to comment. I have even seen a "No Smoking" sign on a bus stop which is simply a pole in the ground with a timetable on it - no roof!!
Rotherham council, like so many others, believes that it is in the right to do whatever it wants and seems to believe that the law can be misinterpreted by them with no comeback from the public. We must do what we can to stamp this out.
Note: Forest is currently compiling a series of "Little Britain" stories for publication later this year. Email contact@forestonline.org.
Reader Comments (5)
The parish council, of which I am a member, has had to erect no smoking signs in all sorts of silly places including the bus shelters. Our bus shelters are closed in on three sides and have a roof so we are obliged to put the signs there. Not surprisingly the computer printed, encapsulated signs seem to disappear. We are fed-up with replacing them and are loth to spend rate-payers money on more substantial signs. So we have come up with a compromise solution. Given that we cannot be expected to inspect the bus shelters every day we have decided that we will respond when a member of the public complains to us that the no smoking sign isn't there and should be. We haven't had a complaint in the past couple of months and I strongly suspect that we won't.
I saw the new style "No Smoking" signs attached to the entrance of a cemetery in Blackhill, County Durham. Leaving aside the obvious element of black comedy, it hasn't apparently crossed the mind of the Local Authority that such authoritarianism is insensitive and misplaced.
Little Britain has reached Harrogate and Knaresborough in North Yorkshire. There is an old railway station in Knaresborough and the local council has fixed plastic red and blue signs on to old stone walls facing the road outside the station with 'Smoking is not permitted on these premises.' These deface the old stone walls and are completely unnecessary as there were signs up in the partially enclosed platform area since 1st July 07. The best laugh of the day was going into Harrogate - next to the bus shelters (75% enclosed and no smoking areas) there is a shelter with a thick centre pillar. No smoking plastic signs have been stuck on this old-fashioned-looking shelter even though it is at least 75% exposed. As I looked at these signs today, buses were entering the station and the area literally reeked of carbon monoxide etc. These signs look not only out of place, but also highlight the mentality of those jobsworths being paid to erect them to enforce this legislation. In short - they are a joke!
It is an absolute disgrace the amount of money that has been spent on signage for the smoking ban.
I have noticed that some of the plastic sticker type are beginning to fall off after only nine months. I cannot believe we, as taxpayers, are paying people a wage to enforce this draconian ban. There is so many more worthwhile projects that deserve the money spent on instead.
Roll on the May 2008 local elections, so that Gordie and his cronies receive another big kicking before the biggest kicking when the next GE is called. It will give me greatest of pleasures to see a large swathe of New Labour politicians picking up their P45's.
In a small Town in the West Midlands we too have had No Smoking signs in bus shelters that regularly disappear. We also have one along a walk through beside the Town Hall, which states, something to the effect that the council have designated this as a no smoking area. I must confess that every time I use it, being that it is totally open to the air, I smoke. As a council tax payer I, along with all other residents, have a financial stake in that area, which has had thousands of pounds of our money wasted on it over recent years and, although grudgingly, I adhere to the no smoking in enclosed spaces, I am damned if I am going to adhere to these pathetic little hitlers who want to waste money on signs out in the open air!
With regard to the comment from Jenny of Yorkshire; we have seen this before, when the Welsh ban came in and there was a story in national press about people being fined for smoking in the bus station! At that time many people were amazed that busses were waiting inside the station, engines idling, pumping out gallons of toxic fumes far more deadly than cigarettes, never mind the residual smoke, but it was smokers who were still deemed the scurge of the world and fined for a wisp of smoke!
It is a very sad and scary situation when this is the mentality of the people who are in power in this country, nationally and locally. Without wanting to offend anyone (I, myself have depression and anxiety problems, so am classed as having a mental illness) the best way I can think of describing our local and national governments, is that they must be the ones who escaped the asylum! Perhaps the men in white coats should be tipped off so they can take them back? It would make for a great improvement, I am sure!!