Tuesday 24 February 2009

Things Are Not Always What EU Think They Are

A few days ago a story appeared in the blogosphere that on visiting the BBC studios at Tunbridge Wells it was found that all the spaces had been repainted in order to make them bigger; and that the council had said this was to comply with an EU Directive.

Intrigued, as after searching up-hill and down-dale (I think that is the right way round) and being unable to unearth anything on the EUwebsite, I e-mailed Tunbridge Wells Council:


"There has been comment by someone visiting the BBC studios in Tunbridge Wells where he found the parking spaces, apparently owned by Tunbridge Wells Council, being enlarged. On querying this with the operatives he was told it was to comply with an EU Directive".


Today a response has been received from Simon Blundell, Tunbridge Wells Council, who states:

"I am not aware of any EU Directive relating to the bay sizes at Great Hall car park or to whom you may have spoken.

The re-lining of Great Hall car park was undertaken as part of on-going planned maintenance. The old lines had faded in places and some of the directional arrows had almost faded away completely.

We therefore took advantage and asked for the whole floor plan to be revised. The current car park floor plan is the result, giving extra disabled bays, better road markings and all bays not less than 2.4m wide."

It would appear that this is a 'Con' - unless EU know different?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I encountered a dubious claim that something was required by EU regulations whilst shopping over the new year holidays. I wondered then whether "EU regulations" might become a default excuse for any bureaucrat questioned about their behaviour. Presumably they imagine that the EU's demands are beyond question.