Silly Rules

[Red diesel]

There a lot of silly rules out there now - one of the self build magazines mentioned a conservatory thats after falling foul of the planners (its belonged to a well known person - but ive not got said magazine with me right now so won't name him/her in case ive the wrong name). Anyway when said well known person had the conservatory put up originally - the company told him that he wouldn't need planning permission. Normally you have what are apparently known as DPs - which allow you to do this. However the well known person was after replacing/doing up the property already - and when he got planning permission to do so - he was told that he was only allowed to build to a certain size - and so he put in plans which had the size of the property at the absolute max. Somehow - somewhere along the line - well known person lost his DPs for the property - appearently when the new property was build on the site. Speaking of planning - someone i know of was even told that she had to have brown windows - maybe its me but who gives a :censor: what colour the windows are - you cant even see most of them from the road anyway on this particular persons property . Someone clearly sits in an office thinking up more and more silly rules - some of you will be aware of the rules regarding the village fetes - and on that theme ive even heard somewhere - of a school not having a tug of war on a school sports day - because of health and safety. But did you hear the one about the firefighters not being allowed to play football because someone in high office has decided that they could injured. Yup thats right - weve got firefighters fighting fires and putting their lives at risk while doing so - yet they can't play football - hilarious. Meanwhile over here the revenue comissioners completely lost the plot - a football team owed them 400 grand - but the revenue would not negotiate - and were quite happy to see the club go out of business over it. The club did manage to get it payed at the last minute. However maybe its me but is it not in the revenues interest for a business to keep trading - afterall a business that survives and goes on to do well will be paying them taxes in the future. The other thing is that if the tax man is getting money from a company thats on the ropes then this means that other companies also owed money have less of a chance of getting paid - companies who also pay taxes to the tax man. Part of the problem of course with silly rules is not so much the rules themselves - but the fact that someone actually bothers to implement them.

Am i being too contrary and fussy

Red diesel

[Norfolk n Chance]

One rule i do like is that of grammer..... you know the rule.... using paragraphs to break up a huge block of text!! :P

[Bizarra]

No you are not being contrary & fussy I totally agree with all the above. :D

I retired a couple of years ago, & as I am a widower, I realised all my Insurance Policies. I didn't need the drain of the premiums.

Only snag was, the Revenue Commissioners . I was allowed to take 1/3, tax free. The other 2/3s had to be put into 2 funds, one of which I cannot touch till I am 75[some hope ]. If I take out the other, fully, I get crucified for Income tax.

As for the funds ? Guess what? With the recession, they are 30% down on what I put in. Left to my own devices, I would have put the whole lot on the best long term Deposit rate I could find. It wouldn't have been great, but I wouldn't have lost money.

As for making silly rules, a Garda Commissioner once said "The more laws that are made, the higher goes the crime rate"

[Bibbs]

Is that the conservatory owned by Harry Webb?

Serves him right. He never returned my Dad's kettle.

Karma ;)

[Karma Supra]

"Little men" in offices with nothing better to do than interfere. They'll never have it for themselves so they will do their best to make it as hard as possible for others.

We had a similar issue when we wanted to build our garage at the bottom of our garden... -bear in mind that we are half a mile away from the nearest public road, surrounded by forest and not within sight of any other house/shop or building. Infact, trespassing aside, the only way it can be seen by Joe public is by air.

We were going to go for concrete block garages clad in wood so they look "old" with a pitched roof, tiled to match the house. Oxfordshiťe cůnty council stuck their noses in and said that it had to be of timber construction only (even though it would look the same from the outside, just cost a great deal more) and have "slate roof, to keep in tradition of local buildings" - even though our house has tiles, and is the only one in sight.

Suprise suprise, after about 10 years the wooden structure is beginning to lean due to the weight of the roof....

[duncerduncs]

Don't knock Heath and Safety...

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[Phoenix999]

Yes there are silly rules but most rules are based on sound practice.

I work in town planning and I can tell you that unless rules existed then there would be anarchy out there. Can you imagine someone next to you building the biggest building at the bottom of their garden By this I mean 5.5 metres high x 15 metres wide and 7 metres deep..... yes is does happen Trouble is this is was allowed once the owner brought the roof height down to 4 metres.... all this without the need for planning permission under what is called 'permitted development'.

As for coloured windows.... yes this can be a rule that can be applied if the building happens to be either 'listed' or within a strictly control 'Conservation Area'. I have a couple of areas that I have to deal with and frankly they are great.... thing is, if you don't want to adhere to the rules of the area then live somewhere else.

As for the concrete blocks issue then I frankly have no idea what Oxfordshire CC were thinking of but then I do not know the facts.

Guys where town planning is concerned don't knock it because if the rules were not there then you would live is a filthy commercialised shanty town and the countryside would have towns and factories everywhere