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- Jan 31, 2018
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- Keir Hardy
- Country
All this VE Day coverage reminds me of an incident that happened in the last couple of years of my career, when I worked at the head office of my firm in 1998.
A colleague had inherited his father's house some years before, it was a nice pre-war property in a good area and a corner site.
It had a balustrade wall about a couple of feet high and he'd recently had wrought iron railings errected on top of both walls and matching wrought iron gates.
Soon after, he got a visit at the door from a local planning officer, who told him that he needed planning permission to have them and he'd have to have them taken down.
"They've cost me a lot of money."
"It doesn't matter, the byelaws apply here, so they have to come down."
"He said just a minute," disappeared and came back with an A5 photo of the front of the house showing the railings and gate.
"Why are you showing me this?"
"Turn it over."
On the back was a photography studio stamp and the date 1938. (He brought it in to show me)
"These are the railings and gates you lot stole at the beginning of WW2 to make into Spitfires or whatever.
So I'm not taking them down and when can I expect my compensation cheque?"
The railings and gates, stayed.
He didn't get any compensation.
A colleague had inherited his father's house some years before, it was a nice pre-war property in a good area and a corner site.
It had a balustrade wall about a couple of feet high and he'd recently had wrought iron railings errected on top of both walls and matching wrought iron gates.
Soon after, he got a visit at the door from a local planning officer, who told him that he needed planning permission to have them and he'd have to have them taken down.
"They've cost me a lot of money."
"It doesn't matter, the byelaws apply here, so they have to come down."
"He said just a minute," disappeared and came back with an A5 photo of the front of the house showing the railings and gate.
"Why are you showing me this?"
"Turn it over."
On the back was a photography studio stamp and the date 1938. (He brought it in to show me)
"These are the railings and gates you lot stole at the beginning of WW2 to make into Spitfires or whatever.
So I'm not taking them down and when can I expect my compensation cheque?"
The railings and gates, stayed.
He didn't get any compensation.
