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news
Tour de Bunting jerseys“Health & safety gone mad” – council orders removal of Tour de France bunting
Residents of a small market town in North Yorkshire have been ordered to take down Tour de France bunting – because council officials think it poses a health and safety risk.
Like people in many other towns and villages along the route of this year’s Grand Départ, residents of Masham have decked their town out to welcome the world’s biggest annual sporting event.
They put up 20,000 knitted miniature yellow, green, white and polka-dot jerseys, with the bunting stretching for hundreds of yards, reports the Harrogate Advertiser.
But yesterday it was taken down on the orders of North Yorkshire County Council, who were worried about what might happen if it rained and the bunting became heavy, putting too much weight on the posts supporting it.
A council spokesperson said: “We noticed that the lighting columns were leaning and in the interest of safety we asked for it to be taken down and not to be hung from lighting columns. We are happy for bunting to be put up elsewhere in the town.”
Locals have now rehung the bunting in places where it is deemed safer, the newspaper adds.
Tessa Klemz, who is manager of Masham community office, commented: “We are all trying to make it a great event.
“There were 20,000 of these jumpers around the district and it seemed such a shame to see them taken down and forgotten about so we thought we ought to get them back up again quick.”
Twitter user Viv Taylor posted a picture with the hashtag #healthandsafetygonemad which presumably sounded a very loud klaxon at the offices of the Daily Mail, who were quickly on the case and used the story to highlight previous examples of 'jobsworthness.'
@BBCYork bunting taken down?!!! #spoilsports #healthandsafetygonemad #masham pic.twitter.com/pAh7Hpy2uj
— viv Taylor (@vivienne1) June 19, 2014
Here’s a picture of the bunting back in place.
#TDF bunting back up! #Masham #powertothepeople pic.twitter.com/wAyHBZ13i3
— Masham Gallery (@MashamGallery) June 18, 2014
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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15 comments
Was this an April Fool joke..... three months late?
Or North Yorks Council just being miserable? In which case they should be more concerned with the bewildering effect a multitude of colourful team jerseys in Le Tour will have on spectators' dazzled eyes.
Solution. Have all riders wear a uniform drab grey, to blend in with the dry stone walls.
Anyone know what the weight of this bunting is and what the OTM of the column is?
Near where I live we've had several columns bent horizontal by the local youff, so I'm guessing these things really aren't very strong, but then they'd only be designed to carry the weight of the head and not a lot of wet woll
It seems that this council has a lot of time on its hands and not much to do. If I were a ratepayer there I would be wondering why the council is employing people with so little to do that they have time to be worried about bunting getting a bit wet.
Sounds like they need to start laying people off because they must already have fixed all the potholes, cut the bushes back from all the obscured sight lines, replaced all the missing road signs, collected up all the flytipping, repainted all the peeling paint on infrastructure...... Just done it all already.
I did some work once for a Street Lighting Dept of a Council. They HATE people attaching anything to the lamp posts (unless they have paid for the privileged)
My guess the original draft was "Oi get that off our lamp post, now!" but they thought the old H&S was a better cover story.
this is why 'Leaning on a lamp post' was sung by a man from Lancashire - don't lean on a North Yorkshire lamp post, you might bring the whole street down domino style.
Health n Safety and wool jerseys
Baa humbug!
Chances are someone who's not in the spirit complaining to get the bunting down and a knee jerk reaction from a council.
Really, the lighting columns were bending from a load that my washing line could handle?!?! Either lighting columns in Yorkshire are made out of marshmallow, or these people haven't got a clue...words fail me
Oh they have a clue alright. It's how to stay in a job when there's nothing for you to do.
It's the public sector equivalent of the cowboy tradesman. You want your washing machine fixed. It probably only needed a new door seal but by the time the fellah presents his bill it's got a new motor, a new pump and he's got £100 in in his back pocket plus the 25% he made on the parts and the door still leaks.
It's a scam. and unlike the cowboy tradesman it comes with a defined benefit pension attached.
The bunting in the first pic doesn't rely on the flexor strength of the pole because any pull from bunting on one side is balanced by pull of bunting on the other side. It only depends on tensile strength of the cord or compressive strength of the pole. If it was hung crossing the street in a zig zag then we might have a problem.
Science bitchhhhhhh.
What's the chances of it raining in North Yorkshire in July anyway?!!
most lampposts seem to be able to take the weight of several hanging baskets filled with earth and water. Can't see knitted bunting taking up that much water, so someone has done their sums wrong
[[[[[ Yeah! 20,000 wet jerseys? Well, 20,000 tichy little plastic race-capes to go over 'em! Er...I'll get me coat now.
P.R.
all the sheep in Masham must be terrified in case it rains and their little legs buckle underneath them
Well now its tied to the buildings lets hope the walls don't begin to bend!!!!!