nice one Dave. Sounds like you got that problem pretty well sorted.
Before I left England to come here to NZ, my problem was I lived in a
little village by the sea which had been declared a maritime
conservation area. And this in turn was in an area which was looked
upon as an 'old English tourist attraction'. In 1990, I had a neighbour
(at the other end of the village), who thought my vehicles were out of
keeping with the village's maritime image. I lived in a 200 year old
cottage. I had a Mk4 Ferret and a White Halftrack parked in the front
garden, a Daimler Dingo and an Austin 8 Military Tourer parked in a
garage at the side of the house. A collection of 9 military Motorcycles
in sheds in the back garden. A Hansa Propoganda Truck, a Standard
Utility and a Bedford Anti Aircraft Portee parked in the garden of a
friendly neighbour, 3 houses away. And two Scammel Pioneer's, a
Matador, a 2.5 ton GMC Airportable Tipper, two Bren Carriers and several
WW2 military trailers in a small boatyard at the other end of the
village. On a farm about a mile to the North I kept my Diamond T 989
and semi trailers, Sexton, Cheniette and AMX 13 tanks, and an
assortment of part restored armoured vehicles and trucks. On another
farm about a mile to the South I kept around 30 pieces of British,
Canadian and German WW2 artillery.
The inevitable happened.....in that part of the world the little man
from the ministry with the clip-board and tut-tuting tone of voice is
called the 'County Planning Enforcement Officer'. He paid me a visit.
He recited a long list of what he described as military vehicles parked
in places without proper authorised 'planning permission', for which I
would need variations from the 'planning Authority'. Which would not be
granted if applied for. My reply was short and sweet 'there aint no
military vehicles here sir, they are all mine' ! I repeated the answer
several times to him before it sank in as to what I was getting at.
With an odd look on his face he left without saying anything else. A
few days later I had another visit whilst working in the boat yard, this
time the little man with the clip-board had the local council 'Health
Officer', and his assistant with him. I was again confronted with the
same question regarding the unauthorised parking of 'military vehicles',
but this time the local 'Health Officer', added the remark 'he
understood I was a current serving member of Her Majesty's Armed
Forces'. I replied 'I was still serving in the army, and re-affirmed my
statement that they were not military vehicles, they were mine'. I also
added that there was no law regarding what vehicles or how many I could
keep or use'. I got away with it, except that both the farmers were
given a hard time over keeping non agricultural equipment on their
farms. (I forgot to mention I also had a WW2 Austin K6 Coles Crane in
the boat yard which was used for launching the smaller boats).
regards
Colin Brookes
Invicta Military Vehicle Presaervation Society (IMPS)
colb@xtra.co.nz
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