Good news, at last, for anyone who fancies beating their carpet, “sounding a noisy trumpet” or “wantonly singing” along a stretch of Merseyside coast: they will no longer face arrest.
A 90-year-old bylaw that banned such activities is set to be scrapped by Wirral council.
The 1935 act also made it illegal for anyone to cycle along a 3.7-mile stretch of coastline from Meols to New Brighton – now a popular cycling route.
As well as trumpet playing, carpet beating and wanton singing, it also outlawed “inciting any dog to bark”, making a “violent outcry” and building a “booth, tent, bathing machine, shed, stand, stall, show, exhibition, swing, roundabout or other like erection or thing”.
The almost century-old law had the unfortunate consequence of preventing Wirral council from erecting public information signs relating to cycling, given the activity was technically unlawful.
Anyone committing any of the offences could have found themselves facing a £5 fine a century ago – the equivalent to about £300 in today’s money.
Wirral council said it wanted to scrap the outdated bylaw as it prohibited now-popular activities.
Paul Martin, a Wirral councillor, told the BBC he was “completely supportive of the opportunity for people to sound their trumpets along the promenade”.
“That’s something that’s been holding New Brighton back as a resort for as long as I can remember,” he joked.
Martin said he had not been aware beating a carpet was outlawed all this time, but had never done it anyway.
A council document said it was planning to scrap the 90-year-old restrictions as they were “outdated and no longer suitable – or if they are still relevant, they are now already covered by other legal acts and orders”.
That will be good news for anyone planning to beat their carpet, though local officials warned that anyone making a “violent outcry” – or, indeed, sounding a noisy trumpet – could still be prosecuted under the public order act.
Until 2011, local authorities in England had to get permission from the UK government to repeal archaic bylaws. Now councils must only hold a public consultation before scrapping the restrictions, meaning dozens of odd rules have been junked over the past decade.
These include a 120-year-old ban on transporting dead horse carcasses in the London boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham; a 1956 bylaw prohibiting the drying of clothes in various parks in Whitstable; and a 50-year-old rule outlawing types of fish frying in Gloucester.
