THE TIMES
12 November 2016 by Nadeem Badshah
Photo: Jo Hale/Getty Images
Brian May wrote in a blog [SOAPBOX] that he had been “woken up by the horrible noise of leaf blowers”
Leaf blowers have been the bane of many people’s lives. Now Brian May, guitarist with the rock group Queen, has complained about a gang of council workers waking him up at his west London home while doing a job that was once done better by one man and his broom.
May, 69, accused the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea of having “disturbed the peace”.
In a blog [SOAPBOX] entitled “Leaf madness. Another RBKC failure”, May wrote: “In the insanity that is London. Was woken up by a horrible noise of leaf blowers. Went out to see an army of SIX men in orange jackets disturbing the peace with the awful noise of the blowers, dust and leaves being blown into my garden, and petrol fumes.
“There used to be ONE man, Billy, who swept up the leaves in our road. He did a truly wonderful job. No noise, no fuss, always a smile and a hello, and the road was spotless after he’d been down it; not a single leaf would you see.”
The musician posted two photographs of his road: one of the workers and another of the pavement still littered with leaves.
A council spokesman said: “Dr May paints a very bleak picture of life in this area which we are not sure everyone recognises.” He added that leaf-clearing was “never left to one individual” in the autumn.