Anonymous

The Edinburgh New Town area is specifically listed and protected. There are clear rules. This lady knew that and is having fun on social media and promoting herself. There's more to this than you think.
However, anonymous letters re tea parties is something different.

I agree but hey! Aren't we anonymous on here?

There is comfort in hiding behind the cloak.
Some years ago some local people trolls began to ridicule a group of us who had recently formed a community group and were quite earnest and a bit naive.
These people made fun of us on the local online forum. They were anonymous but ofcourse we could guess who most were. The administrator said he couldn't remove their posts which were truly awful.
It got so bad that we asked for legal help to stop them. We were advised to ignore the lies and banter and it would eventually stop which it did.
But I have never enjoyed satire and this type of banter ever since
It's easy to destroy people from behind cover

Well if she is intent on publicising the whole thing you can understand why someone would want to complain anonymously can't you? They don't want their name all over social media.
As for the tea party, depends on what was being complained about. Loud music in a quiet area on say a Sunday? Barbecues in the afternoon used to annoy me when I had a line of clean washing out. If I didn't get it in quick enough it stank of smoke. There are things which are annoying whatever the time of day.

There is an article about it at www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/edinburgh-woman-faces-20000-fine-27295683
It was because the house in the New Town is apparently in a Unesco World Heritage Site, which has guidelines about door colours and so on, not just because some random neighbour doesn't like it. I agree that it is a petty rule, but I imagine she was aware after having to change it from green the first time that the house she had inherited from her parents was subject to this restriction.

She says it is not pink but "off-white". I was assuming that the photograph in the article is of it before she changed the pink to off-white, but from Google maps street view (https://www.google.com/maps/@55.9586663,-3.1961352,248m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu) I see that it is indeed the shade of bright lilac in the picture. Almost all the other doors in the street (as in of the rest of the New Town) are white, black or grey. One is dark green. On the same section as hers, there is one in bright red - I wonder whether they have also been fined?

I think that anyone who has ever used social media must, at some time or other, have experienced unpleasantness facilitated by anonymity. Sadly, it goes with the territory, and is best ignored.

My link to Google maps, above, doesn't work, but finding for "Drummond Place Edinburgh" on Google, the choosing Maps, then Satellite, then Street View, will get you to where you can see the whole street in all its glory. The lilac front door does stand out. The private gardens in the centre of the square look rather nice.

Words fail me - did she own the house ? If it is a rental then fair enough. Otherwise, no.

World Heritage Site- of course she should follow the rules!!!

nanna8

Words fail me - did she own the house ? If it is a rental then fair enough. Otherwise, no.

A World Heritage site is like a listed building - there are rules in place for what you can do, particularly to the outside.

Gransnet is more anonymous than most social media sites.

Although you can make anonymous and fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter Instagram etc to some extent you can look at a profile to see more about the person and who follows them who they follow, and often their day-to-day lives if they are being open and honest about themselves, then if it looks genuine you may be more likely to trust what they are saying about themselves, eg: Where they live, education, work, went on holiday,backed up by photos or conversations on their account.

Here you have no idea who the people are and if there is any truth as to how they describe their lives and experiences.

I think that someone complaining to a neighbour about a tea party or a noisy dog etc might prefer to be anonymous so as not to cause longer term unpleasantness. It could be called cowardly, but discretion is described as the better part of valour.

As for the door - a friend of mine works in the planning office of the local council, and tells some outrageous tales of what people think they should get away with. You know when you buy a listed building, or one in a heritage area, but a lot of people think the rules don't apply to them. I think the policy is not to say who has complained, whether or not they were anonymous, so the council don't get dragged into feuds and arguments.

Yet another instance of 'the rules don't apply to me.' Though in my experience getting a decision from planning is like waiting for a non-existent bus, so I'm not surprised that she did her own thing.

Anonymous? No, not acceptable.

The planners say they can only take action if a complaint has been made, which is the ridiculous part of this as far as I can see.

It certainly seems there is more to the front door story than I knew . I agree that the rules should be followed if in a particular area.
The thing about my neighbour's anonymous letter was that it was very nasty. He's elderly, the noise was minimal.
I just wondered if anyone on GN had ever received an anonymous letter?
I haven't, thankfully.

Defining colour may be less straightforward than one thinks. It must depend on a definition by someone (who?) of the blend of visible light frequencies reflected by the door paint and that in turn may depend on the spectrum of light falling on the door which in turn depends on the quality of daylight.

My sister lives in a listed building and has to use a particular colour paint. Not just 'blue', but a specific shade of blue. In her case it seems arbitrary, as other houses in the village are not listed, so it's not as though it would break with unity if she painted her house orange, but rules are rules. I think I remember the paint she used being discontinued and her having to apply to the planning department to see what she could use instead, but that may not be true.

I live in London and a couple of years ago somebody thankfully a few streets away from me painted the outside of the house some awful colour which stuck out like a sore thumb. It may have helped planes on their way to Heathrow!

It did not last long and is now I think white. Anyway it blends in with the surrounding houses.

I try to speak with the people themselves if eg loud music is played outside, not a party and no earphones. People parking inconsiderately, bonfires at 2 pm during the week and I could go on.

I used to live just round the corner from the lady with the pink door now pastel pink. Our front door was (and still is with new occupants) a strong red colour. It looked great with all the traditional brass door furniture. All the doors round about are strong colours : greens, reds, blues, cream. No pastels. This lady's door unsurprisingly strikes a jarring note. She works in PR and has set up several companies called 'Pink door'' this and that.
Says a lot...

I have had experience of this nature in the past from neighbours regarding trees. Reporting someone or sending something anonymous to achieve something is devious and underhand.

I have always held that if one has grounds for a complaint, or thinks that one has, a politely worded written or verbal complaint is in order, but that it must be signed with the complainer's name and address.

If I ever receive an anonymous complaint, which to date, I never have, I would take no notice of it. Formerly I would have put it on the fire or into the waste-paper basket. Nowadays, where stalking has become so popular a pastime, I might well keep it in my desk drawer until I felt certain that it wasn't the start of a harassment campaign that I would want to show the police.

Being anonymous on this or other online forum is a completely different thing in my opinion. We are usually exchange views and opinions on matters that interest us, not trying to complain or bother each other, and the site moderators apparently delete contributions that they feel overstep the mark.

If the communication was in any way threatening, it would go straight to the police whether it was signed or not.

The thing is, another neighbour a few doors away, also had a
nasty anonymous letter last year. About a different subject altogether.
So there is someone unpleasant living around here.

We had a hedge reported to the council for overhanging the pavement. It did "hang over" at 9ft or so above the ground. Our pavement is very wide - probably 9ft also.
It was apparently "a neighbour".
We cut it back but it seemed pointless to me.

My mother had to once paint a stationary caravan in "battleship grey".
It then gave planning permission for it to stay put! It was on a farm so maybe they thought it would blend in with the block work?

My husband has done work on lots of listed buildings.
He often had to deal with National Heritage to make sure that the materials etc were approved.
It’s daft to go against the rules of which she will have been well aware of.
I always think of it as a privilege to live somewhere such as that