It sez 'ere....

You know the situation - you've gone out for a picnic, and it's a bit on the breezy side, so your paper plates and serviettes are in danger of blowing away. But wait - help is at hand. You have had the foresight to bring a windbreak - just a piece of deckchair-type material stretched between a couple or three poles which you can stick in the ground and then shelter behind from the breeze. There - that's better. Until that is you are approached by a couple of council officials zooming up in a 4x4 who tell you your windbreak is contravening local by-laws and you must take it down or face a possible fine. Sounds a bit like a "Carry-On" film doesn't it? And yet this is exactly what happened to a family on the Clifton Downs at Bristol the other day. The by-law is intended to stop people pitching tents and such, and the council have accepted that their officials were "over zealous" - i.e. stupid. There's a lot of it about though.