Kerre Woodham: The farce and the furious

Scotsmen's stands make up for the hassles of living close to a major venue. Photo / Alan Gibson

Don't the Captain Sensibles at the Hamilton City Council look like a bunch of thin-lipped, po-faced wowsers?

Council staff issued 11 notices of fines to people who sat on their roofs and watched the V8 race in Hamilton this year, saying that people were using structures inappropriately and that the situation was extremely unsafe.

Only the intervention of Hamilton Mayor Bob Simcock allowed common sense to prevail, and the notices were withdrawn on Friday.

But still! Fifteen hundred dollars for sitting on the roof of your own house minding your own business!

What a hangover left over from the last administration. Scotsmen's stands are a time-honoured tradition in this country - one of the perks of living close to a major venue and a sop for putting up with the inconvenience of street closures and thousands of people peeing in your garden.

And it's not as if rooftop spectators are plummeting off rooftops in droves. Even if they were, if people want to climb on to their roofs and risk falling off, let them. They're only hurting themselves and taking up a bit of hospital time.

Here's a thought. How about the council polices building standards and workmanship of new homes so we don't have another rotting home scenario? If they'd policed that, we might not have had people losing their homes and their life savings.

The Drifters may have found a paradise right smack dab in the middle of town, and there may have been enough room for two up on the roof where they came from, but in Hamilton, they'd have got a fine, not a top 10 hit.

* www.kerrewoodham.com