Tuesday 20 September 2011

No, The World Does NOT Revolve Around Your Offspring…

A nursery has been told its children will have to spend more time indoors because it is breaking a planning rule designed to limit noise.
Fair enough. About time the kiddiewinks learnt boundaries and consequences.
Managers at Kings Castle Montessori in Saxonbury Road, Bournemouth, had been letting children play and study outdoors for much of the daybut did not notice they were breaking a condition placed on an earlier planning application.
And they’re supposed to be the adults, remember?
Caroline Hexter, acting manager of the nursery, said: “They’re not able to be learning outside when studies left, right and centre are saying how beneficial being outside is for children.

“We’re very upset about it. The children have a full and active curriculum inside but it’s nice to be able to give them the outside space as well where they learn so much more.”
Yes, I’m sure it is ‘nice’ but a) the weather will soon curtail that and b) the restrictions were put there for a reason.
The nursery had won council grants totalling almost £19,000 – including awards for outdoor equipment such as a canopy, water butts, play equipment and waterproofs.

If the application had been approved, the nursery would have been able to use the play area for two hours a day plus up to five hours’ supervised use of the garden for learning for up to 12 children.
And the reson for the restriction? Well, noise, of course:
Neighbour Michael Jinks started a petition against the planning application which attracted 16 signatures.

He said the nursery had already caused problems and that “two hours a day is plenty for children to be outside”.

Another neighbour whose home backs onto the nursery site claimed the playing was waking her in the mornings.
Now, here’s where the comments come into their own. Do you think they are full of support for the residents?

Reader, they are not:
eunoia6 says...

Appalling neighbours. Surely there is no lovelier sound than happy children laughing and playing?

I sincerely hope they win their appeal.
‘No lovelier sound’..?

Well, if you like it so much, I’m sure Mr Jinks would be happy to send you a recording…
fletch for manager says...

typical of the oap brigade got nothing better to do than moan and make everyone elses life a misery.. Hope the school is successful in the appeal..
No, he’s merely expecting the school to abide by the agreement they signed. Not to simply say ‘Ooops, we forgot!’ and then try to force amendments through.

We aren't tolerating that one with the Dale Farm mob, why should we tolerate it with an achingly-trendy middle class school?
John26 says...

This is such a shame as my kids go there. Mr Jinks shame on you do something better with your time. The school has been there for more than 12 years and you moved in knowing it was a nursery. Why don't you stay inside for 22hrs a day and we can let you out for two??
Yes, he did move in knowing it was a nursery, but also knowing the amount of time your little darlings had to run around screaming at the tops of their voices would be limited…
Outraged_of_Bournemouth says...

My children go there and have both been adversely affected by the selfish Mr Jinks. They now have to stay indoors nearly all day and come home desperate to go into our garden and run around. The sound of children happily playing is wonderful, and the children are very very happy there....or were, until Mr Nimby started complaining.
For the last time: the ‘sound of children playing’ may well be ‘wonderful’ to you. But it sounds like it's not so wonderful that you want them doing it in your vicinity, though you're quite happy for Mr Jinks to have to suffer it...

I do like the 'selfish' jibes that everyone falls back on, though. Is there anything more selfish than a doting parent oblivious to the fact that everyone else is the world doesn't owe them anything because they've managed to procreate?

28 comments:

SBC said...

Uhm its all rather moot as there was, AFAIK, a euro-rluing that children have a 'human right' to make a play/noise outside....and that such 'planning provisions' that try and limit said noise breach said right.

So the Nimby is shit out of luck, I'm afraid....hopefully his house value will plummet. You don't move next to a school/kindergarten/playground if you don't like the noise of screaming kids...no matter what you think the planning laws stipulate.

Anonymous said...

I love the sound of my neighbour's kids outside playing so much I've offered to send them on holiday to Portugal.

Vetnurse said...

I don't like kids hence having none, by the same token l wouldn't be stupid enough to move next to a school or nursery or kids play area. I would object to one trying to set up next to me.

As to human rights well mine would be impinged if they tried to build a school/nursery by me so what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

As to present problem as far as l am concerned stick to what you should do as per application it would apply to anyone else and if parents don't like it... take little darlings some place else.

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX Caroline Hexter, acting manager of the nursery, said: “They’re not able to be learning outside..XX

Ahh. Now my spoken English is as out of practice as Cassius Clay in the ring, but I HOPE this cow is JUST a manager and is not let anywhere near the "teaching".

Because I am still trying to work out what the Hel that sentence is meant to mean.

Or maybe it is just me....?

Bucko said...

"The sound of children happily playing is wonderful,"

Personally I'd rather shove wasps up my arse than listen to that.

Jim said...

The parents are of course so selfless that they park their kids onto strangers all day while they go out to work..........

Budvar said...

Sorry Joolz, I'm with the school on this one.
As a one time resident of Bournemouth, Bournemouth suffers from the syndrome of getting everyone elses "Old Bags.

It's a retirement town (like others such as Eastborne or Frinton) mainly of the 30 quid millionaire variety.

They retire, sell up the big house they've lived in for 40+ years in some shitbox industrial town, then buy some crappy retirement flat which is much too small for all their crap.

They don't know anyone, they're invariably something like an ex-works foreman but have pretensions of being a retired Major, and as such won't talk to the neighbours as they feel they're beneath them.

Their meager pension just about covers the bills with little left over for luxuries, and they've nothing better to do than than complain about everything and report the guy down the road with no road tax to the "Authorities".

Typical nimby "Wont someone just think of the property values?".

As for the "Well I don't like children" brigade, well I don't like, well anything or anybody that are pretty much unlike me, but I have to suck it up. Noise from kids for 2hrs a day during fine weather, I mean FFS, suck it up.

Thing with banning everything we don't like, is the bloke over the road may object to something you do, and if everyone gets their way, no one ends up being allowed to do anything.

SBC said...

Furor, it's 'How may I be helping you' English. Smart white people now speak it here...not just Backwardistan Call Centre 'Help' Lines.

Anonymous said...

I just forwarded this to my Dear Ma. She is having the same problem because the school extended the play ground about 40 metres right against her fence- for the previous 30 years there had been a small mound with trees and bushes.

From the empathy expressed, I don’t think she has much hope; at worst vigilante noise criminals will hound her out of the house at below market rates.

SBC said...

"
It's a retirement town "-Budvar

Try Cromer (Northest Norfuck)...the town motto is 'Come to Die'.

It's where those OAPs who couldn't afford Bournemouth house prices come and then pretend they moved here for the 'bracing climate, don't you know'.

If a teenager walks down the high street in a hoody then someone will phone the Authorities.

I jest not...that's a direct quote from the local 'bobby' who retired last year....he didn't retire to here though...strangely enough...

SBC said...

"for the previous 30 years there had been a small mound with trees and bushes."- Anon

Your dear old Mom bought her house and the plot it stands on. She didn't buy the view,nor the scenery nor the ambient noise levels.

She didn't buy the right NOT to look out on a Wind Turbine, She didn't buy the right to only hear birdsong.



....ps own "Aged Mother" is also still alive and living independently..so I empathize with YOU but not your Mom.

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX SBC said...

Furor, it's 'How may I be helping you' English. Smart white people now speak it here...not just Backwardistan Call Centre 'Help' Lines. XX

Right...thanks for the clarification.

15 years after my last visit, and I don't think I would reccognise the place anymore.

KenS said...

... awards for outdoor equipment such as .... water butts, .... and waterproofs

Do they perhaps intend teaching scuba diving?

But seriously why is my tax money buying water butts? Not exactly vital to the education of nursery school aged kids are they? Um ... don't people pay to have their kids at nursery school?

Anonymous said...

KenS, it's a Montessori school soy your tax isn't buying them anything.

KenS said...

Henry: The nursery had won council grants totalling almost £19,000 – including awards for outdoor equipment such as a canopy, water butts, play equipment and waterproofs.

Tattyfalarr said...

From whom are these children supposed to learn "compromise" ?

Kevin said...

I see the "theenk of the cheeeeeldren" brigade are out today.

If the bloke moved into the house knowing that there was a nursery nearby he will of course expect some noise. And as is set out in the planning regs there is a balancing act to be carried out between the right to make a noise playing outside (which, contrary to SBC's viewpoint is NOT an absolute right but a qualified one) and the right to peaceful enjoyment of home life (also a qualified right.) In this case the balancing act had already been carried out and 2hrs play plus 5hrs supervised activity was the conclusion, thus the resident has a reasonable expectation that the nursery will abide by the rules upon which it is founded. If they do not he is right to challenge them and I hope he succeeds.

John Pickworth said...

In my world, it'd be "Well they shouldn't have built a nursery at the bottom of my machine-gun firing range then!"

;-)

SBC said...

"I see the "theenk of the cheeeeeldren" brigade are out today."

Uhm hardly, I for one, would be merrily flicking my cigarette butts over the fence into the Kindergarten.

[isn't that a capital offence these days?]

I just don't have any sympathy with the Nimby culture that infects this island. Hell, here in Norfuck we even have parasitic homeowners who bought houses *on the edge of a fucking cliff* who feel they should be compensated when their house falls off...

Jinksy bought a house next to a Kindergarten and he should have had the foresight...

...a fool and his money are soon parted.

Come on, single largest investment of your life-that puts you in hock for a quarter of your life...you'd think he'd have sat down and thought about the fact the house was next to a Kindergarten and that the kindergarten was likely to expand/get louder/turn into an Al Qaeda Recruitment centre or be bulldozed to make a traveler site.

Budvar said...

We're talking about what, kids shouting and running around for two 20 min breaks and an hour for lunch, 5 days a week, 36 weeks per year, between the hours of 9am and 4pm?

Anyone would think they'd opened a factory drop forging crank shafts 7 days a week over 3 shifts.

SadButMadLad said...

Sounds like a previous case (Acorn Close, Barlby) I covered over in my own blog (before I got head hunted for AnnaRaccoon).

sbml.wordpress.com/2010/09/18/acorn-close-barlby

Anonymous said...

With wonderful bizarreness, the littlest starts there on Friday...

DSD

Anonymous said...

Can you counter attack with some noises - that might upset (on purpose) the littlies -

Leg-iron said...

Just down the street lives Banshee Girl who has screamed like a rape victim every day since the family moved in.

At first I, like everyone else, looked out of the window.

Now nobody bothers. She merely inspires the terrible things I write about.

If she is ever attacked in this street she need not worry about her attackers being inconvenienced by neighbours. We'll all just sigh and get on with what we're doing.

Let them scream, I say. It's good practice for when they grow up and get their first utility bill.

JuliaM said...

"Uhm its all rather moot as there was, AFAIK, a euro-rluing that children have a 'human right' to make a play/noise outside..."

GAH!

"I love the sound of my neighbour's kids outside playing so much I've offered to send them on holiday to Portugal."

SNORK!

"As to human rights well mine would be impinged if they tried to build a school/nursery by me..."

In today's society, probably not. Human rights don't seem to work for anyone you might assume they would.

"... but I HOPE this cow is JUST a manager and is not let anywhere near the "teaching". "

Almost certainly not - 'manager' being just an additional title.

Explains a lot, eh?

JuliaM said...

"Personally I'd rather shove wasps up my arse than listen to that."

Me too. We don't have children very near, but we're on a route to a school and a park, so we have to suffer the screamers that LI describes below... :(

"The parents are of course so selfless that they park their kids onto strangers all day while they go out to work..."

Spot on!

"...Bournemouth suffers from the syndrome of getting everyone elses "Old Bags."

Who can expect, when moving in to a place, to have existing regulations and covenants honoured. Just like anyone else, surely?

"Noise from kids for 2hrs a day during fine weather, I mean FFS, suck it up. "

That's what's currently allowed - the school wants to change it.

JuliaM said...

"From the empathy expressed, I don’t think she has much hope..."

Sadly, no.

"15 years after my last visit, and I don't think I would reccognise the place anymore."

There are places I no longer recognise, and I'm still here!

"But seriously why is my tax money buying water butts?"

It's for the chiiiiillldreeeeen...!

"From whom are these children supposed to learn "compromise" ?"

Damn good point! Not their parents either, one suspects.

JuliaM said...

"Sounds like a previous case (Acorn Close, Barlby)..."

Ah, indeed! I thought it sounded familiar. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've blogged on similar issues myself, but Blogger's search function is so useless I couldn't find any.

"With wonderful bizarreness, the littlest starts there on Friday..."

Good luck!

"Let them scream, I say. It's good practice for when they grow up and get their first utility bill."

LOL!

But what is it with the volume control on modern kids? If I screamed at the top of my voice when a kid, for no good reason, I'd have got a lecture (at best) on consideration for others.

Don't we have that any more?