Others should follow the T (Geoff McCarron)

I was going to say that I was surprised to read about the sign outside the Thule Bar in last week’s Shetland Times, but of course the proper word in this case is resigned as it is yet another bonkers decision from our planning authority which we are all now becoming quite accustomed to.

This is just a case of petty bureaucracy the like of which is slowly strangling the life out of this country. The terms of planning quoted in the article are rather misleading in as much as where the red T is concerned, all of the other illuminated signs thereabout also fail the terms of the criteria so, if the red T must go, then so should the others.

Really, you cannot have one law for one and a different one for another. However, this is the Shetland planning authority that we are speaking about, the same ones who treated Chris Hodge so disgracefully, and put a local building firm out of business almost on a whim which consigned men and women with families to the dole queue.

It is quite laughable that a sign in front of a quayside pub should cause such trouble by not “being in keeping” with a conservation area. I wonder where the rubbish skips and the ultra modern bush shelter lies in this concept. I am surprised that the shelter is not made out of ratchie stone to fit in.

I suppose that a department of a local authority such as planning with all of the power that is held over the public has hard decisions to make, but in my opinion should have a very high percentage of local people at the decision making end simply because only those born and bred in a community can truly understand the feel of the people and the buildings of that community where career tourists cannot.

I am an incomer myself so I do not have an axe to grind on that subject. I hope that even now, common sense may prevail and the sign in question gets a reprieve, but I’m not going to hold my breath on that one.

Geoff McCarron
Lindisfarne,
Setter,
Sandwick.