enquiries
Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:20:25 -0700
Hi Linda,
I've never had any objections to the interactive sundials I have made for school playgrounds and parks. I do have public liability insurance but whether it would actually protect me against the loony risk-averse, who knows?! When I was laying one sundial out in a park in Kent someone came up and asked if I was performing a religious ceremony! Other comments have all been positive. You could test out local reaction by making a temporary sundial painted it onto a tarmac or paved surface in a paint that won't last more than a few months. If you do make a sundial set into grass I would make any mosiac sections or stones quite small with a surface that is not too smooth (which might be slippery when wet) or too rough/pitted to trip on. Set the sections slightly below grass level firmly attached to a 4" thick base of concrete so that they are hard to pull up but easy to mow over without being cracked. Big gang mowers used by councils can be damaging. Harriet James Sunnydials 35 Bradley Road Warminster BA12 8BN www.sunnydials.co.uk Tel: 01985 216311 On Tue 13/07/10 2:50 PM , Isabella McFedries isabella.mcfedr...@gmail.com sent: In message Linda Reid wrote: > > Do the members of this 'List' have any comments (good or bad), about > installing such interactive sundials - since we do not want to go to > the time and expense of creating this, if local people do not really > want it. Most people said they would be happy, (although we did not > mention any of those negative factors, when conducting short "market > research" - because we were totally unaware of them, at that time). > > I shall very much look forward to receiving feedback, on the above. > > > Sincerely, > > Linda Reid. > I have only just picked-up on this message, but have several comments. Yes, it seems that the whole world has "gone mad", with a combination of 'Health and Safety' - plus those lawyers and accountants, as well! We wanted to have a Human Sundial, at a local Observatory Park in the town of Montville (Ohio) - but we simply could not get approval from our legal advisors, because they felt it was too 'risky' (since they might be sued if somebody got hurt, using this interactive feature). We even tried to get one into a local school - but were again denied the opportunity to do this, just in case of potential injury claims. Like yourself, Linda - we wanted to get the layout plans from "Modern Sunclocks", but they would only supply them if we had a 'disclaimer' letter (because they had similar incidents with other installations, plus had even been sued due to an increase in the amount of litter). I remember them saying that schools in Australia had actually banned the use of Human Sundials, since these could increase the chances of children developing skin cancer in the future - and the educational authorities did not want any litigation cases, resulting from this. I also seem to recall "Sunclocks" saying that a few well-known public locations in the UK had to move their Human Sundial features into a better 'monitored' area, (or even remove them altogether) - as people were regularly fighting, over having any souvenir photographs taken. It appears that these are simply 'too popular for their own good', or could attract undesirable people - which is no doubt why "Sunclocks" let people know in advance, what they are letting themselves in for. I had also noticed on the website page which you mentioned, that some people feel that a Human Sundial will 'lower the tone' of their area! I think that it is totally ridiculous, that we are being discouraged from making useful and decorative public features - just because the "powers that be" are too scared of 'one in a million' chance of risk, which might result in some person deciding to take any legal action. Regards, Isabella McFedries. ---------------------------------------------------
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