Wednesday 15th April
An early dog walk before each of us start work at home. We meet neighbour Tim and his dog. Tim is a decorator, and has been able to work painting an empty house. He now has to stay at home – not for self-isolation purposes, but because he is unable to obtain paint from his supplier. An exceptionally busy day working at home, since new complaints about noise and pollution received over Easter are forwarded to our Team today, and I am the Duty Officer who has to contact each new complainant. All 67 of them. About a third are about smoke from garden bonfires. It seems that people are using the lockdown as an opportunity to clear gardens and burn garden waste, when others wish to use lockdown as an opportunity to relax in their garden, and the two activities conflict. Unusually, because of the number of bonfire complaints at a time when we cannot go and see what is going on, we send advisory letters without confirming that there is actually a problem, or who is causing it. We have also teamed with the Fire Service, publicly discouraging garden bonfires. There is a higher than usual proportion of complaints about shouting, arguing and doors banging, more difficult for neighbours to ignore during lockdown. After a long day on the phone I still have many people to contact.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
