HW: everything there is to know

[J Strobridge]

Andy Gilham writes:


> I thought I already did!  Keep 'em coming, folks - anyone wanna give me a
> concise summary of the story behind "Right to Decide", f'rinstance?
>

ack - I forgot this one!!

jill

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Entries something like:

WORD/PHRASE  : Right to Decide

TRACK        : Right to Decide
ALBUM        : it is the biz
REFERENCE    : A house, a council, a bulldozer and a shooting

Albert Dryden, idiosyncratic gentleman with an interest in ballistics (he
was detained on firearm offences c.1957 and in the 1960s for trying to
launch a homemade self-constructed rocket from his back garden) worked
in the Consett steelmill which was shutdown in about 1989.   With his
redundancy money he bought a smallholding and started trying to get
planning permission.

I don't know what this involved, nor do I know the details of what happened
while he was trying to do this but in the end he ended up building a shed
(which was legit), a greenhouse (which I'm not sure about - there may have
been another one too), and a bungalow which he built in a 20ft deep hollow
that he dug out by himself.

Again, I don't know details (the trial reports were in newspapers which
were not available on the open shelves having already been archived) but
he claimed that he was given a letter of permission and that one of the
councillors had helped him to lay out foundations for one of the
greenhouses.   However the council clearly seems to have considered his
bungalow illegal.  It was however not until after he had completed it
(at least the roof was complete) that they finally moved into demolish
the building.

The police apparently advised Harry Collinson to move in at night and take
Dryden by surprise.   However Collinson insisted that Dryden be told of the
exact day and hour of the arrival of the bulldozers, apparently so that he
could leave with dignity.   This, unfortunately, turned out to be a serious
error of honesty since Dryden, although surrounded by newspaper men, TV
cameras, video recorders and journalists (or perhaps because of this, I'm
not sure) met the councillor with a gun in hand and shot him several times
at point blank range.

The bungalow has now been demolished by Dryden's friends and relatives at
his own request.










> - Andy
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J.D.Strobridge at ed.ac.uk                         eset08 at castle.ed.ac.uk
                                                ELIJSA at srv0.arts.ed.ac.uk
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