Wednesday 18 July 2012

Bond Street Laine - Council withdraws



A single complaint against the City Council's proposal to correct the spelling of "laine" was received by the Magistrates Court, and the preliminary hearing of this complaint was held at the court last Thursday. 

From the nature of the magistrates' questions as to why the Council was pursuing the name change, it was the opinion of the Council's lawyer that  the Court would find against the Council at the full hearing. Essentially it seems that the magistrates' view was that the change would be for cosmetic reasons only and not as a result of confusion. 

Should the matter proceed to a full hearing and the Council be unsuccessful the objector, Mr Roy Pennington, would be entitled to ask the Court for a costs order against the Council which is likely to be for the £500 setting down fee Mr Pennington would be obliged to pay prior to the hearing.

The Council says that, in order to pursue a case at court, they have to consider whether the decision to pursue would pass the public interest test. In view of the likelihood that Mr Pennington's complaint will be upheld at the full hearing and the consequential cost to the public purse the Council will be attending Court next week to agree to the complaint thereby effectively ending the matter.

Presumably, but for the one complaint, the name change would have gone ahead without problems. It is strange that practically everyone in Brighton, including the Council, is in favour of the change but it seems impossible to get it done.  One wonders if the Council would consider making a second mistake. Simply put up a new nameplate with the "i" missing.


4 comments:

  1. "It is strange that practically everyone in Brighton, including the Council, is in favour of the change " -- wrong: virtually half of all the Argus readers polled said it should be kept.

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  2. I confess to a touch of hyperbole. My impression was that everyone in Brighton once well acquainted with the facts was in favour of correcting the spelling error. Indeed Mr Pennington was initially in favour but, for reasons known only to himself, later changed his mind.

    My recollection of the Argus poll was that it was attached to a rather tendentious article and not of much value..

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  3. "Bond Street Laine" was never a spelling mistake. It was consciously named by the developer, who was...................?

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  4. Clearly, if it wasn't a misspelling of "lane", it was a misuse of "laine". The developer, whose name is irrelevant, was presumably under the impression he was conferring on the passage a certain quirky cachet.

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