Moral Issues or Legal Definition

A letter from the a member of the UK trade

Colin Scull
Bristol UK
3 September 2009

What’s recently come up (again) are some questions that we dealers have to ask ourselves: The minefield that we have to pick our way through, without a legal background in the subject; the need to run our business in a commercial way and what is best for the reclamation industry in general. That is quite apart from whether we think that the planning / listing / conservation officer is being right and proper or unrealistic / insane.

So the scenario is :
A chapel in South Wales has closed down.
They have sold off what items they could, but can not sell the pews because they have been listed and may not be removed. This, of course, reduces the possible uses of the building and therefore the value of the building.
The building is then sold.
The new owner gets planning consent to make changes to the building, with the restrictions that the pews can be removed (from the floor) but stored in the building or somewhere suitable. So that in the future the pews could be re-instated.
The owner then contacts several dealers to see if they want to buy the pews.
On trying to clarify the position with the planning / conservation officer, there seems to have been a “miscommunication” with the owner on whether he can legally remove and sell the pews.
Although the owner believes the planning restrictions on the pews are unrealistic he now agrees to stop offering the pews for sale.

So answer the questions to find out how you score: are you a moral leading light for the industry or a money grabbing b*stard that can justify anything?

A) They have been listed so we can’t touch them.
B) The planners are being daft, I can help the owner out and bend a few rules.
C) The planners don’t really care, they might send me a stiff letter.
D) The other dealers are keeping away, so I can buy them really cheap.
E) The owner is going to get rid of them, if I don’t buy them then they will be destroyed, so that he doesn’t have to pay to store them or put them back.
F) Although the listing officer is being un-realistic, it’s right to abide with his ruling.
G) Why isn’t there someone I can phone and find out the legal thing to do.
H) The Salvo code mentions something about listed items, but isn’t the code only a voluntary code.

So how do you score?
A – Yes 5 points. No 0 points
B – Yes 2 points. No. 4 points
C – Yes 1 point. No. 3 points.
D – Yes 2 points No. 4 points.
E – Yes 2 points. No. 4 points.
F – Yes 4 points . No. 1 point.
G – Yes – 5 points. No. 0 points
H – Yes – 5 points. No. 5 points.

Results
0-10 Your grandmother should hide the gold in her teeth.
10-20 You will make money but do you have any friends?
20-30 Well I think we all blunder along trying to keep the wolf from the door.
30-40 Wow really ! you should be running Salvo.
50-60 You should check you adding up. Was it you that measured that last run of flooring that I bought straight from site?

Best regards
Colin Scull
Robert Mills Ltd