That tree again

I don't normally do follow up blogs, but this is different. You may remember that back in February, Bromley Council decided to chop a 200 year old tree down at the bottom of my street... for no other reason than it 'got in the way'. Of course, they did not say this in so many words - they said it looked 'ill' and needed the chop to cure it.

For once, people were outraged and complaints poured in from all over the place - even primary schools adopted the tree and bedecked it with 'Get Well' cards (ahhhh) and yellow ribbons, for some reason. It clearly had tweaked the conscience of the Bromley populace. But I still expected the worst. Bromley council is notorious for not listening and going ahead regardless with their schemes. Then, last week, I read this in the local rag. I was amazed. They had listened. They had actually listened to their public.

I was amazed. Incredulous. The council has a heart after all. Of course, I now half expect it to be rammed by a bin lorry and it to collapse on a passing school bus... because life is like that.

Now... the next step. To get the council to listen to the public on parking metre machines in Bromley car parks. These nasty devices need the intelligence of an Einstein, the patience of a saint and... pound coins that work. It doesn't help if it's raining either. You get soaked just trying to read the instructions. It would take less time to disarm a nuclear device than it takes to get a ticket and, I have been told, people have been given fines, even while they queue at the ticket machines for a ticket.

But mostly softly... Rome was not built in a day. We've saved the tree and should be happy with that for the time being.