Welcome mats banned. More bansturbation

Local and national authorities love banning things, nothing makes a council/state employee happier than the warm self satisfied glow that comes from a ban.

But what to ban? Guns, even deactivated ones are banned, drinks and fags have more rules than you can shake a stick at. Drinking in public, yep thats been done, so they need to find ever more weird things to banstibate.

So here we have the latest thing to be banned. The social menace, the terror that is the evil "Welcome mat"

Council bureaucrats said the mats posed a hazard and have ordered them to be removed.

They have even threatened to take residents to court - with the threat of eviction - if their demands aren't met.

Letters, signed by housing officer Elspeth White, were sent out after a council surveyor visited the flats.

Three residents in Revenge House, at The Anchorage, Gosport, Hants, have now been told to remove the rubber-backed mats.

They have been warned that people could trip on them, particularly if they needed to leave in an emergency.

The council says the health risk is made worse because the corridors in the building are narrow.

Resident Ingrid Buckland, 62, has removed her mat for fear of the council taking action.

She said: "'I just can't understand all the fuss over these mats - it seems so futile.

Sadly Ingrid Buckland has the wrong take on this, yes I agree with her that it does indeed seem futile and could be described as rather petty and bloody minded.

You see she fails to see that there is nothing that an official enjoys more than a good banstibation session, he/she digs out some minor health & safety clause and then lets fly with official letters. The happy self satisfied glow, the raging hard on, they love it.

Never mind that it is people like Ingrid who pay for them, they no longer exist to serve the public but instead see themselves as the masters of the public. Hell they have so many laws, EU dictates,

But not state employees agree with this bit of banstibation:

But the head of the council's own housing board thinks it is over the top.

Cllr Keith Gill said: "I would be very opposed to any kind of legal action taking place over this. I think that would be heavy handed.

"This is really sending out the wrong message and there are more important things that the council should be worrying about."

Tom Mullarkey, chief executive of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, was also against the mat ban.

He said: "The application of common sense and balance is much more reasonable than the seeking of mindless increments towards absolute safety."

Other council tenants in the borough could be sent letters in the coming months if their mats are deemed to be dangerous.

Although the health & safety excuses come forth thick and fast from one Brenda Brooker, much like the official who came up with this idea:

Council spokeswoman Brenda Brooker said: "We, as a local authority and landlord, have a duty of care to all persons entering our communal areas. - Excuse no.1 duty of care, in short a roundabout way of saying "we are in charge an don't want to be sued by some ambulance chaser."

"These should be free from any hazards or obstructions, likely to cause health and safety issues or prevent evacuation of persons in a fire situation. - Excuse no.2 the old it could cause someone to burn to death. I wonder if a welcome mat has ever led to a fire related death?

"We would consider the health and safety risk that the particular problem presents and then would consider appropriate action, possibly involving legal action." - In short ---- with us and we will kick you out.

Someone remind me again about that myth of us being a free society?...

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