Licence to walk

And we thought our council was bad. Just read yesterday in the "i" about the council that's trying to charge some residents £122 a year to access the rear oft their houses with a vehicle; £16 for pedestrian access and advised them to take out £2m public liability insurance.

It's appears to be a neat scam - Canterbury Council compulsory purchases land behind some residences in 1995 and then 17 years later inform the owners they need to pay to use their land as an access route. Given that it's probably been used for at least 3 years prior to this then it could class as a public right of way and they'd be unable to charge anyway.

It was, however, the response that particularly resonated with me.

"We are sorry residents in Cromwell Road are unhappy. Our intention was to regularise existing access to the rear of their properties by granting access licences across the residents’ car park. However, concerns have been expressed about the proposal so we are going to pause and take time to discuss the situation with them to allow us to find a way forward that meets the needs of all parties. We will be contacting the affected residents in the near future."

Because discussing these proposals with the affected residents before trying to put them into practice is just stupid. Gosh that sounds familiar.