SPITTING IN THE STREET

I make no apologies for copying below  my post  earlier this year of  18^th February when I was still at my previous web address.   It is unclear from the report whether J.P.s or a District Judge(MC) presided.  I consider this a disgraceful bye law.  I can remember my late father with his health problems forced to spit in the street  before he could fumble about to find a handkerchief.  Anybody exercising his/her right to use the streets for strenuous exercise eg cycling or jogging {as I do} will at some time have to spit. 

 
Whilst I suppose being prescient on this topic has some sort of satisfaction for this blogger it reinforces his opinion of the restrictive nature that now envelops  our society.  We are not a nation ridden with T.B. and in any event in London where that disease has been imported in the main from Africa there is much more chance of infection from riding the Tube for a few stops than in the streets of an outer borough.   





Earlier this morning like thousands of others across the country with the hope of enjoying a healthier life I went jogging. And like those thousands of fellow non athletes who seek to counter the effects of a sedentary over caloried lifestyle the activity in the lower regions of the lungs attempting to produce an increase in oxygen supply provoked the action of expectoration, a reflex action of the body and not one borne of voluntary habit. I was not running in the London Borough of Enfield. The proposals of the ham fisted burgers of this area were the subject of a post here one year ago on 13/02/2012. A two line statement in a document of 176 pages entitled “Public Document Pack THE CABINET Wednesday, 5th December, 2012 at 8.15 pm in the Conference Room, Civic Centre, Silver Street, Enfield, EN1 3XA" states as follows:-

The Council is leading on a new initiative to bid to ban spitting in the borough. If enough residents back the call Enfield will be the first council in the country to ban the habit.”

Apparently without further ado this aspiration to outlaw expectoration is now a bye law but in the neighbouring borough of Waltham Forest. Spitting is being considered as littering and offenders will be subject to a fine of £80. However nowhere on that Council`s website is mention made of spitting being classified as littering with all the sanctions that that offence produces.

It is an absolute certainty that within a year the refusal of an “offender” to pay such a fine will lead to an appearance at the local magistrates` court where colleagues will have an interesting debate on the lawfulness of such a bye law. As for me I will continue my exercise routine and hope that my principles are not put to the ultimate test if those interfering do gooding busybodies in my borough get up to the same tricks.