What Could Be More Pleasant Than Sitting Under A Tree,

say at the end of a busy day as you relax on your way home?

but this idyllic joy is now banned if Health & Safety officials have their way in Crawley, the Borough Council has been told the benches pose a health and safety risk to anyone who sits on them, it appears that twigs and leaves fall out of trees, so the council has been ordered to remove all park benches from beneath the trees as people sitting in the shade could be injured, 

the ruling came to light this summer after Pound Hill Residents Association asked for permission to build a circular bench under a tree in a refurbished community garden, the association was told it would be in breach of health and safety guidelines, Member of Parliament Tory Henry Smith said, 'in my view this is clearly absurd, there’s a risk to everything, whether it’s crossing the street or cooking in the kitchen, it just seems to me to be an extreme example of health and safety advice gone mad',


so the question is how to stop all of these rulings that seem to be so over protective? well here is my answer, each directive that is issued should have the name of the official that asks for its implementation to be named as part of the ruling, all the time that bans such as 'ban and remove all park benches from beneath trees' is made by nameless officials they will be continued to be issued, but say this ruling was made by Mr/Mrs/Ms XXXX of department XXXX and you will be surprised how few of these rulings are made such as these are made in the future,


thousands of JLS fans were lashed by torrential rain for two hours because of a health and safety ban on umbrellas at an open air concert, an audience of nearly 7,000 went home drenched to the skin after being told off by an on-stage presenter for opening brollies at the rain-sodden amphitheatre in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, the teenagers sat shivering while heavy-handed security staff ensured no one breached the brolly ban throughout the show at the Open Air Theatre on August 25,

binmen refused to empty 20 wheelie bins on a single street because they were all just 'one inch too full' and therefore too dangerous to deal with in August the refuse collectors in Stockport, Greater Manchester, ignored a third of black bins left outside on collection day saying health and safety rules stopped them collecting bins which did not have the lid fully closed,

not to mention the one we featured here, in the post Two Pictures Are OK.