It's not been a good week. I've been in dispute with my local council for almost four years - this video is a good summary of the issues. Some time ago the Planning Inspectorate gave a final ruling against me, and I understood that the designer of the structure was going to take further legal action against the Council.
This week he informed me that he simply doesn't have the resources to fund a Judicial Review, apparently the only way the Planning Inspectorate decision could be reversed. The day before that, the Council wrote to inform me that if I don't remove the structure by 6 March I will be subject to legal action involving unlimited fines.
As if all this weren't bad enough, I've been playing around the fringes with LLM technologies, and my latest experimental subject, Claude Code, just pushed code to a remote repository without specifically being told to. Because I spent the morning clearing out the shed (electronics workshop, mechanical workbench, computers, tools, ... and the job's not even half done yet) I responded in what I'd like to feel is an uncharacteristically acerbic way. Oh well, only an LLM's "personality" got a little bruised, and at least my mood has lightened enough to post the resulting dialogue.
It looks like my only recourse now is to hire workshop space somewhere, which will incur not only rental and transport costs but also make me spend more time travelling and increase my carbon footprint. All this for a shed that stands 2.5m high next to a 25m house, and which whenever I tell the neighbours what the council require causes them to raise their eyebrows in astonishment. Without exception, nobody has EVER said it is an eyesore, or even the slightest bit objectionable in any way. But the jobsworths in Hastings Planning Department say it has to go, because it contravenes regulations. Now I'm depressed again.