Saturday, November 03, 2012

It's not called "The Fall" for nothing.

Here's an interesting question - at this time of year trees lose their leaves.  Who do those leaves belong to, or more to the point, who is responsible for those leaves? An elderly lady in Stratford-upon-Avon lives on a tree-lined street.  Some of the leaves coming off those trees end up in her front garden.  She (or more accurately, her gardener) sweeps them back onto the pavement and into the road.  She has now been advised by the council that this constitutes fly-tipping which is punishable by a fine or even imprisonment. But the point is that the trees are on council land - the pavement - and therefore I think it could forcefully be argued that the leaves "belong" to the council, and that this is simply a matter of returning them to their rightful owner.  Discuss - as they would say in an exam question.

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