Village people (not them) have been sharing the most ridiculous thing their parish council ever did – 24 moments of unbelievably small-minded pettiness
13.
‘Oh I got one, they put up a menorah for Hanukkah, and a cross for Christmas in the green strip of grass opposite the main road. When Ramadan came around the community put up a crescent. But it was removed within a day which everyone was confused about, given that the cross and menorah stayed up for the entirety of their own representative holidays.
‘Turns out the crescent was too offensive to the locals so they passed a rule stating no religious symbols were allowed on public spaces owned and maintained by the council. Christmas time comes around and they put up the cross again. Online chaos in the Facebook group with council members being dragged by name. They took the cross down sometime around the 5th or 6th of December.
‘It was such a nice tradition for the last two decades in the small village to have different religious symbols on the grass opposite the town for everyone to see, usually lit up at night too, they would always try to do as many religious holidays as they could, Diwali, Vesak, Eid etc. But now its just a plain old strip of grass.’
–ThatOneCloneTrooper
14.
‘The biggest dickheads in my village weren’t the parish council lot but rich incomers. Five minutes after moving in they’d start to demand changes like street lights being turned off at 11pm or reject an application for fibre broadband cabinet because it isn’t in keeping with the local setting.
‘Edit to add: the best was the woman who complained about the bird scarers going off during the day. She moaned and pissed on about it in the local group but someone pointed out that just wait until the army starts practising artillery barrages on the nearby ranges.’
–mr-seamus</strong>
15.
‘Not quite Parish, but our local community council floated ideas for a third notice board to be installed, near the primary school IIRC.
‘This is despite the fact that the other two notice boards in the area are repeatedly vandalised, and it’s not uncommon to see the poster for last Easter’s church service still up in January of the following year.’
–crucible
16.
‘I live in London now but was born in a tiny village and I remember my dad being up in arms because someone suggested brightly coloured cars shouldn’t be allowed to park outside or on the road.’
–nervous_veggie
17.
‘Character bin (think giant cartoon character) really pissed off one of the counsellors because it ‘ruined the character’ of the kids playground. Turned into a convoluted moral panic about wasps and danger to children.
‘Parish council sold the bin – without permission – to a local children’s group. Local community kicked off about misappropriation of council funds. Demanded the bin back. Parish councillors argued they couldn’t get it back as it was already sold. Three month process with parish council meetings more attended than that episode of the Vicar of Dibly when Songs of Praise are filming.
‘Bin is finally returned to the village but health and safety now say it can’t possible go in a children’s playground due to the risk of wasps. The bin now stands outside the village pub and has done ever since.’
–Aware_Protection_905
18.
‘I came from a small village in Hampshire, and my family still lives there. They refused a fish and chip shop because it wasn’t near the sea. They do, however, have Chinese, Indian and Italian restaurants.’
–GooseGundy
19.
‘Parish Council Facebook group came alive after three teenagers walked down the main road with dogs on the dark.
‘Didn’t do anything apart from walk down with dogs on a lead at 6pm. This led to accusations of them being not from around here, the wrong sort of people, the wrong sort of dog, poaching and hare coursing.
People were ‘keeping an eye out’ and ‘reporting back’ like it was 1940.’
–Gadgie2023
20.
‘Some years ago, my local Parish Council rejected a planning application for an illuminated sign for the village shop on the grounds that ‘everybody knows where the shop is’.’
–1002richards
21.
‘I applied to use the parish council building for my child’s birthday party one year, and they were thrilled and very encouraging as I paid the deposit. Great!
‘Except that she explained it meant they could reject a tentative booking from a local support group for families with disabled children. They’d been trying to come up with an excuse for a while, and a firm booking for that date from a parishioner would do just the job.’
–Loose_Acanthaceae201
22.
‘A small town where I used to live is being held back by a select few in the council. Everything in the town is over subscribed and we are desperate for a second supermarket as the one there has the monopoly who can charge the elderly population who can’t drive as much as they like. But the council are desperate to keep the small sleepy town vibe so all planning for anything new gets refused.’
–Samwrc93
23.
‘One of our councillors called the police on a man who had been seen ‘taking his shoes and socks off’.’
–Kaioxygen
24.
‘When work was being done on the pipeline running through the village the gas board/British Gas asked the parish council if they wanted a local connection established; they said yes and were puzzled that they didn’t already have one.
‘It emerged that when the gas pipeline was being installed many years before they asked a previous council member who said no: his brother had the local Calor gas franchise!’
–No_Mud_213
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