A BMW driver is threatening to sue a council if plans to reduce the speed limits on residential roads go ahead.
Lancashire County Council wants to impose a blanket speed restriction on all residential roads by 2013. The £9m plan aims to reduce the number of road deaths and injuries in the county.
But Diane Greenwood, 47, of Wolsey Close, Cleveleys, says the changes will damage her car – and the environment. She said: “My car is a two litre diesel BMW and is not designed to drive at 20mph in fourth gear which means I will have to drive in third gear.
“This will not only damage my car but will also affect the environment and cost me fortunes in extra fuel costs. If this happens I will have no alternative but to lodge a claim against Lancashire County Council for the damage to my vehicle and any extra costs incurred due to the new restrictions.”
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A BMW showroom was forced to provide umbrellas to customers because of an “aerial bombardment” from seagulls attracted to a nearby waste site.
The gulls have been blamed for peppering the cars and customers with droppings, dive-bombing staff and even dropping leftover chicken carcasses.
The problem has got so bad, bosses at the Vines dealership in Guildford, Surrey, are now handing customers brollies and telling them to beware of the gulls.
Workers at the showroom say they get ‘splattered like a dalmatian’ if they stand about too long in the forecourt, which is right next to a waste transfer station where rubbish is taken before being sent to landfill sites.
Mark Hollands, the principal dealer at Vines, said the waste site – managed by SITA on behalf of Surrey County Council – is making life a misery and is costing them thousands extra to clean and repair cars.
He said that dustcarts dump their loads at the site at least three times a day and that this is now attracting up to 100 gulls at a time who scavenge on the leftover grub.
He said: “We have to warn our customers to use umbrellas when they are out on the forecourt. If you don’t run to the showroom from your car, you will look like a dalmatian.
“We have had chicken carcasses and tea bags dropped on our forecourt. Chicken carcasses, dropped from a great height, will dent the cars. The worst thing is that bird poo eats the paint work. It has acid in it, and if you let it lie on the cars too long it will damage the paint.”
He said that the reason for the birds being attracted to the site is that the rubbish has been left uncovered for the past month – whereas previously workers at the site had ensured all waste was fully hidden from gulls.
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A group of house painters in Russia have covered a silver BMW in bright purple paint after becoming angered at the owner’s failure to move it off a pavement.
The BMW was found parked on a pavement in Veliky Novgorod, Russia, and carelessly blocked access for residents, as well as the painters.
Attempts were made to track down the owner of the car but they were ultimately unsuccessful.
The painters then decided to take matters into their own hands and teach the driver a lesson by painting parts of the car purple and including strokes of obscene language across the windows.
A police spokesman stated that there were no complaints concerning the new found paint job on the car, suggesting it could have even been potentially abandoned.
Eyewitnesses said the car remained in place all Sunday before disappearing late in the evening.
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This is one crime that you won’t find at the top of nefarious crimes lists – selling fake hubcaps. However it seems that in Quebec, this is worthy of news.
Police in Quebec City have seized more than 3,000 counterfeit hubcaps.
RCMP officers searched an auto parts business and two warehouses to find the fake hubcaps.
All these hubcaps had well-known trademarks on them such as Cadillac, Audi, BMW, Volkswagen and GM.
Four men were arrested and charges are pending, police said.
“The illegal production and sale of counterfeit goods account for losses of several million dollars annually. Counterfeit goods can pose health and safety risks to the public. The RCMP invites consumers to make the right choices to prevent the harm caused by such criminal activity,” the police said in a release.
