It seems that councils have a by-law for everything these days. Even something as basic as flying the Aussie flag as a point of pride in our country. The other amazing thing is the sort of fine they threaten to impose unless we tug the forelock and obey their instructions precisely.
A Shellharbour family was big on national pride. They had a flag pole and they raised the Australian flag on it every day. When her husband died, his widow maintained this custom and over recent times she has moved house three times without incident from her flag flying - but this third move has unusual results.
It provoked a visit from council inspectors. Someone who disliked flag flying had complained to council and the inspectors were there to hold an audit. They measured the flag pole and they measured it's distance from the nearest fence - and pronounced it illegal !
The law in Shellharbour requires flag poles not to exceed six metres in height, and this flag pole measured nine metres. They must be three metres from the nearest fence, and this flag pole fell short by just half a metre. The widow received a formal letter from the council ordering her to remove the flag pole - and threatened a fine of $ 1.1 million dollars if this action was not carried out within the required time frame - and an additional fine of $ 110,000 per day thereafter.
Ludicrous scare tactics. The council have no authority to impose such a fine. They can take the case before a court and a magistrate will consider all the aspects - and decide if a fine is warranted - and what that should be. It seems that councils prefer the heave handed approach.
The widow is quite happy to lower the height of her flag pole to what the council requires, and move it that half metre away from the fence, but this incident says a lot about the nit picking that passes for civil harmony these days. It seems to be a fact of life that flying the national flag will upset some other citizen, and it seems that councils need by-laws to cover every conceivable activity that their residents may engage in - and to cover themselves against criticism for not responding to complaints.
Whatever happened to the " Live and let live " era of yesteryear ?
No comments:
Post a Comment