Borough boundaries

>From: Dave news.reply.0703@dv-8.
>Date: 19/07/2003 12:53 GMT Daylight Time

>Why should transport links be a factor. A borough s just a way of
>administering local government.

And a very silly one at that. In many of the outer boroughs houses that face
each other across the same street and are identical in every respect attract
different amounts of council tax because the borough boundary runs right down
the middle of the road. That boundary might have made sense when there was just
farmland on either side of it, but why didn't anyone bother to tidy things up
after the houses were built?

And how much time is wasted at council tax payers expense by over paid
bureacrats in town halls all over the place scrambling about to find out if
theirs is the odd numbered side of a street or the even numbered side when
someone complains that a street light's out or something similar?

Dave wrote:

> So perhaps we should wind back *all* the 1960s local Government
> revisions and go back to having local parish councils only.

"Under the New London Plan, they're going to lump all those areas south
of the river together. They're going to call them 'Brighton'."

Richard J. <rjnews@blueukder.co.yon> writes
>> So perhaps we should wind back *all* the 1960s local Government
>> revisions and go back to having local parish councils only.
>
>While I agree with most of your points, I don't know what you mean
>here. Before the GLC was formed, we had boroughs (e.g. Bromley,
>Beckenham) and urban districts (e.g. Penge, Orpington), and above them
>in the hierarchy there was a county council (Kent for those areas).
>That's not "having local parish councils only".

It was to save having to type; "... and go back to having local
government administration based on old parish boundaries". But I'm sure
that you knew that already didn't you?

--
Dave

If you think local government boundaries are bad, try dealing with people who
think in postal districts. I had to call a Homebase shop once to find out why I
had waited in vain for a delivery. I happened to live about equidistant between
two stores.
When I gave my address, the manager person asked what postal district that was,
then told me triumphantly that I had got the wrong store, because the store in
my postal district was ... I had to point out that I knew which store I had
visited, and I had not posted myself to it, I got off a bus
there because it was conveniantly situated on my way home.
Regarding boundaries, once places became built up there were bound to be
oddities - our old house when I was a kid had a boundary plate on the side
wall, between Manchester and Salford. (some people assume the two cities were
separated by the river Irwell, but that was only in th e city centre. A teacher
told us about this drunk who regularly fell a kip each night on the bridge,
near Salford bus station. A passing Salford policeman would move him over to
the Manchester side. An hour or so later the Manchester policeman would come by
and would move the drunk back. Bit later the Salford guy came by again .. . and
so on. Happy innocent days).
Back to London, there may not be easy places to put boundaries. Each old
borough
and district spread out until it met the other. If you take a main road like
Kilburn High Rd. as boundary (as it is between Brent and Camden and was between
Willesden and Hampstead before that, unless I'm mistaken) then you bisect
Kilburn. But people will still say they live in Kilburn whatever side of the
road they live - except some yuppies who wanted Kilburn High Rd tube renamed
Mapesbury, the local government ward, because they thought it sounded better.
Funnily enough just down the road is Brondsbury rail station which really is
confusing, and Brondsbury was a fashionable location on the estate agents books
recently, but most people would think of it as nearer Kensal Rise. Now if you
were to start talking about how tube and rail stations got their name - like
Dollis Hill for instance, which is not on the hill, - and why saying a house is
" near such and such station" depends if you're buying or selling .. .

CharlesPottins <charlespottins@> writes
>Regarding boundaries, once places became built up there were bound to
>be oddities - our old house when I was a kid had a boundary plate on
>the side wall, between Manchester and Salford. (some people assume the
>two cities were separated by the river Irwell, but that was only in th
>e city centre. A teacher told us about this drunk who regularly fell a
>kip each night on the bridge, near Salford bus station. A passing
>Salford policeman would move him over to the Manchester side. An hour
>or so later the Manchester policeman would come by and would move the
>drunk back. Bit later the Salford guy came by again .. . and so on.
>Happy innocent days).

A similar story was recounted by Nicholas Rhea in his books - from which
the Heartbeat TV series derives (although they changed the characters
name to Rowan for some reason.

--
Dave

James Farrar wrote:
>
> Dave wrote:
>
> > So perhaps we should wind back *all* the 1960s local Government
> > revisions and go back to having local parish councils only.
>
> "Under the New London Plan, they're going to lump all those areas south
> of the river together. They're going to call them 'Brighton'."

- Flanders and Swann, c.1960.

Colin McKenzie

Colin McKenzie wrote:
> James Farrar wrote:
>
>>Dave wrote:
>>
>>
>>>So perhaps we should wind back *all* the 1960s local Government
>>>revisions and go back to having local parish councils only.
>>
>>"Under the New London Plan, they're going to lump all those areas south
>>of the river together. They're going to call them 'Brighton'."
>
>
> - Flanders and Swann, c.1960.

The very same.

In article <20030719125201.27580.00000197@mb-m23.>,
acrosticus@pare (Acrosticus) wrote:

> And how much time is wasted at council tax payers expense by over paid
> bureacrats in town halls all over the place scrambling about to find
> out if
> theirs is the odd numbered side of a street or the even numbered side
> when
> someone complains that a street light's out or something simila

When my son was to be born, we caught a bus to Lambeth - to bring him home
we caught the bus from Southwark... The bus stops are opposite each other.

--
Paul Cummins - Always a NetHead
Wasting bandwidth since 1981

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