Q. I was at the theatre recently and bumped into a well-known Liverpudlian crooner coming out of the disabled lavatory. She said ‘Don’t worry, luv, it’s fine to use them if no disabled people are waiting.’ Often theatre interval queues are long and in some of London’s better restaurants the ‘disabled toilet’ is closer, cleaner and more convenient. Is there a ruling on this or was Cilla correct?
— N.C., Stanton St Bernard, Wilts
A. Common sense tells us Cilla is right — but it is only correct to use disabled lavatories if you can be certain you will not thereby stymie the – possibly more urgent — need of a member of the select group for whom the facility is intended. To this end Cilla should only have used it with the door ajar.
Q. With the best of green intentions a local landowner has planted many hundreds of trees. Unfortunately a particular group of six beeches threatens to screen off the village’s view of the downs. We believe the landowner rarely approaches his house through our village. If he did, he might realise the planting has been insensitive. But how to ask him to cut them down? Many of the other affected villagers are employed by the big house or would otherwise be too shy to rock the boat by joining in a petition.
— Name and address withheld
A. A petition would strike the wrong note. Instead write to the landowner in your own name. Congratulate him on the planting he has already carried out and gush that you would like to contribute six more beeches for him to plant anywhere he wants on his own estate. Meanwhile might he consider converting the existing beech avenue into a beech hedge to restore to the village its much-loved view of the downs? Six beech saplings will cost you no more than £100.
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