been approved.
I would recommend you to attend the next meeting of the Plans Committee which is at 8 o’clock at Marlford School House on Tuesday next, to make your explanation of your irregular behaviour.
Any work you may have done will be at your own risk.
The members of my council need holidays, the same as others do, and there have been no meetings of the Plans Committee since July 28, as you could have learned if you had troubled to inquire.
Yours faithfully,
v. potch.
The explanation of this extraordinary letter is that Marlford is a small provincial town with its own local architects, surveyors, auctioneers, agents and traders; and these men hob-nob together and play into each others’ hands and are jealous of any who do not belong to the place taking money out of it. We have also seen that Nibnose & Rasper, who belong to the place, have a grievance against Spinlove which, in such a community, would become general knowledge; and if neither member of the firm is on the council their friends are sure to be.
It is also possible that Mr. Potch practises privately as an architect independently of his official duties, and that it is in his interest to make things difficult for all architects who trespass upon his local preserves, so that it may be generally perceived that any who employ Potch as their architect will have no trouble with interference by the district council, but that if they employ anyone else they probably will have. Potch’s proposal that Spinlove should attend at Marlford at 8 p.m. is part of his system of inflicting annoyances upon his rivals. If Spinlove was so foolish as to act on the suggestion the surveyor would perhaps forget to mention that he was in waiting, or persuade his committee to decline to see him.
Mr. Potch has impudently ignored a fact of which Spinlove appears to be ignorant, namely that the Public Health Act ordains that approval or disapproval of intended work shall be signified by a local authority within one month of the deposit of plans.
SPINLOVE TO CLERK , MARLFORD R . D . C .
Sir,20.9.24.
I enclose copy of my letter to your council’s surveyor and of his reply, and shall be obliged if you will ask your council for an explanation of that reply.
I do not propose to attend the meeting of your Plans Committee on Tuesday.
I have to point out that I complied with your by-laws in submitting application form and plans nearly eight weeks ago, and that if I am called upon to stop the work your council will have to accept responsibility for breaking the contract.
Yours faithfully,
Spinlove has, apparently, “been there before.” He wisely addresses himself to the clerk: he could scarcely reply to Potch’s letter, and if he did so the council would probably never see the correspondence, but would have only the surveyor’s hostile report.
THE CLERK , MARLFORD R . D . C ., TO SPINLOVE
Dear Sir,24.9.24.
Your letter and enclosures were laid before the Plans Committee on Tuesday and the surveyor was instructed to write you.
My committee instructs me to say that the dates of their meetings are fixed to suit general convenience and can be obtained on application, and that they have instructed the surveyor to stop work being commenced before approval of plans as much trouble is caused.
Yours faithfully,
POTCH TO SPINLOVE
Sir,24.9.24.
I have to inform you that the Plans Committee of my council are prepared to recommend plans of Honeywood subject to alterations, see below. Plans and form returned under separate cover.
Attic to have vertical height at wall 5 ft. 6 in., and average height of ceiling over floor area of 9 ft. 6 in.
Window area to be not less than one-tenth floor area.
Independent vent, as per by-laws.
Walls of house to be increased in thickness down to ground to comply with by-laws for house of three floors.
Yours faithfully,
SPINLOVE TO POTCH
Sir,25.9.24.
There is no attic. The third floor is roof space and is clearly marked boxroom.
I return
I would recommend you to attend the next meeting of the Plans Committee which is at 8 o’clock at Marlford School House on Tuesday next, to make your explanation of your irregular behaviour.
Any work you may have done will be at your own risk.
The members of my council need holidays, the same as others do, and there have been no meetings of the Plans Committee since July 28, as you could have learned if you had troubled to inquire.
Yours faithfully,
v. potch.
The explanation of this extraordinary letter is that Marlford is a small provincial town with its own local architects, surveyors, auctioneers, agents and traders; and these men hob-nob together and play into each others’ hands and are jealous of any who do not belong to the place taking money out of it. We have also seen that Nibnose & Rasper, who belong to the place, have a grievance against Spinlove which, in such a community, would become general knowledge; and if neither member of the firm is on the council their friends are sure to be.
It is also possible that Mr. Potch practises privately as an architect independently of his official duties, and that it is in his interest to make things difficult for all architects who trespass upon his local preserves, so that it may be generally perceived that any who employ Potch as their architect will have no trouble with interference by the district council, but that if they employ anyone else they probably will have. Potch’s proposal that Spinlove should attend at Marlford at 8 p.m. is part of his system of inflicting annoyances upon his rivals. If Spinlove was so foolish as to act on the suggestion the surveyor would perhaps forget to mention that he was in waiting, or persuade his committee to decline to see him.
Mr. Potch has impudently ignored a fact of which Spinlove appears to be ignorant, namely that the Public Health Act ordains that approval or disapproval of intended work shall be signified by a local authority within one month of the deposit of plans.
SPINLOVE TO CLERK , MARLFORD R . D . C .
Sir,20.9.24.
I enclose copy of my letter to your council’s surveyor and of his reply, and shall be obliged if you will ask your council for an explanation of that reply.
I do not propose to attend the meeting of your Plans Committee on Tuesday.
I have to point out that I complied with your by-laws in submitting application form and plans nearly eight weeks ago, and that if I am called upon to stop the work your council will have to accept responsibility for breaking the contract.
Yours faithfully,
Spinlove has, apparently, “been there before.” He wisely addresses himself to the clerk: he could scarcely reply to Potch’s letter, and if he did so the council would probably never see the correspondence, but would have only the surveyor’s hostile report.
THE CLERK , MARLFORD R . D . C ., TO SPINLOVE
Dear Sir,24.9.24.
Your letter and enclosures were laid before the Plans Committee on Tuesday and the surveyor was instructed to write you.
My committee instructs me to say that the dates of their meetings are fixed to suit general convenience and can be obtained on application, and that they have instructed the surveyor to stop work being commenced before approval of plans as much trouble is caused.
Yours faithfully,
POTCH TO SPINLOVE
Sir,24.9.24.
I have to inform you that the Plans Committee of my council are prepared to recommend plans of Honeywood subject to alterations, see below. Plans and form returned under separate cover.
Attic to have vertical height at wall 5 ft. 6 in., and average height of ceiling over floor area of 9 ft. 6 in.
Window area to be not less than one-tenth floor area.
Independent vent, as per by-laws.
Walls of house to be increased in thickness down to ground to comply with by-laws for house of three floors.
Yours faithfully,
SPINLOVE TO POTCH
Sir,25.9.24.
There is no attic. The third floor is roof space and is clearly marked boxroom.
I return
Similar Books
Oblivion
Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Lost Without Them
Trista Ann Michaels
The Naked King
Sally MacKenzie
Beautiful Blue World
Suzanne LaFleur
A Magical Christmas
Heather Graham
Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD
Martin A. Lee, Bruce Shlain
Rosamanti
Noelle Clark
The American Lover
G E Griffin
Scrapyard Ship
Mark Wayne McGinnis