Perspective

Day 99

28th August 2009

We all got up and went for a pre-breakfast walk about, this morning. It was lovely. The streets were quiet, except for a refuse lorry, parked along the quay, and one or two others in search of a patch of sunshine; a few chirpy dog walkers; and a couple tending to their dinghy on the shore.
As we got to Gee Whites, I read their notice pinned to the side of the building. They're applying for planning permission for a new roof, constructed of metal and glass (according to the local paper). There is a long story attached to this place, which in a nutshell, is that the straw roof that is in place now had a retrospective planning permission refused, despite a majority of the locals in favour of the roof staying as it was. The owner has been told it has to come down, so he's reapplied again now and has been told that the council will advise the planning committee to refuse the application.

I can't understand why this has to be such a big problem for the local council. I can't understand why there are processes like this in place to start with.

Personally, I don't care if the roof is straw, glass, metal, or chocolate (now that would be fun). As long as it's not pink with sprinkles on it, or flashing a big neon arrowed sign saying "eat here", why would anyone object to it? To look around the town there are lots of different buildings, from different eras, and different tastes, and nothing that I would want to jump up and down in protest about.

The point is, that in the whole grand scheme of our lives in our present time, there are far bigger things to be worrying about and getting hot under the collar about. There are wars, famine, other humanitarian crises, and the threats to our beautiful planet to think about and take action on. Why should anyone care about the appearance of a roof on the top of a building that does a good trade all year round, so long as it isn't outrageously offensive?

How about turning the attention to more important things, like the future of our schools in Swanage, and how that is going to affect our outlook on the horizon?

We had a walk along the seafront before heading off home again for breakfast.