[xoxoxoBruce]

I see in Masham, Health & Safety strikes again.

HEALTH and safety bosses have ordered knitted bunting in a town on the Tour de France route to be taken down – as it was causing lampposts to lean. The bunting, featuring yellow, green, white and polka dot jumpers to represent the winners’ jerseys in the race, had been hung in Masham, near Ripon, by Harrogate Borough Council following an appeal by the authority to decorate the district.

Over six months, hundreds of schoolchildren, women’s institutes, craft groups and knitters from as far afield as Australia and the Arctic Circle created 23,453 jumpers for the display. A month after the bunting was hung in the town’s Market Place, and less than three weeks before 20,000 visitors are expected to visit Masham to see the race, residents and traders were stunned to see hundreds of the knitted jumpers being taken down by tree surgeons.

North Yorkshire County Council, which owns the lampposts, said it had asked the borough council to remove the bunting on safety grounds. It is believed the weight of the bunting increased after rain, causing lampposts to lean.

I suspect when one becomes a member of the Health & Safety SWAT Team, everything becomes a health and safety issue, and the biggest orgasms come from trumping another authority. But that's just a guess.