(704)  CHARLIE THE SELKIRK COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO: NO ASBO, BUT A NIGHT-TIME CURFEW

Readers of Scots Law News with long memories will recall Charlie the anti-social cockerel whose high-decibel crowing kept awake his increasingly irate neighbours in Selkirk (see No 595).  A trial of the charges against him was scheduled for December 2006, but since then it seemed that silence had fallen in the case (whether naturally or by fowl play), with no further news about it emerging from any of our usual sources (see No 621 for Scots Law News worries on this score).  However, the BBC reports on 21 November 2007 that Charlie is still with us, and that his owner and their neighbours have reached an agreement whereby Charlie will be kept in lightproof accommodation between 8pm and 9am from 1 May to 30 September and between 7pm and 7am for the rest of the year.  The ASBO proceedings raised by Scottish Borders Council in connection with this matter have been put on hold so long as the deal is kept by Charlie’s owner.  Full details at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/south_of_scotland/7105699.stm.