Rooster boosted
CHARLIE the cockerel went from being in the soup to flavour of the month this week as he was given a free soundproof chicken shed.
He also received the backing of several neighbours who branded a campaign to silence him “petty”.
The rowdy rooster’s owner, Ozzie Williamson, had been ordered by Ettrick and Lauderdale District Court to build a lightproof shed to stop Charlie waking at dawn and disturbing neighbours.
But Ozzie was saved the trouble when he received a call from Hawick-based Porters Porches, who offered to build Charlie a chicken shed complete with soundproofing – for free.
Ozzie told The Wee Paper: “It’s tremendous. To tell the honest truth I was thinking it was a wind-up when I got the call. If it had been April the first I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid. As it’s turned out, it’s a fairy tale come true.”
The new rooster residence was delivered on Monday, and its arrival brought out a new wing of support from some nearby residents who disagreed with the campaign led by their neighbours to shut Charlie up.
Fiona Murray, and Karen and Murray Swale, said they had never had a problem with the bird. Mrs Swale said: “I just think it’s petty. You hear it if you’re awake but it doesn’t wake us up. You just get used to it – it’s background noise. I like to hear it, it’s like the countryside.”
Mr Swale added: “It’s nothing to do with the cockerel, it’s just the way of life they don’t like. All the children in town love this place. We’ve lived here for 16 years and there’s less livestock here now than when we first lived here. There’s more noise off the road than there is from the cockerel.”
Designer of the chicken shed, Steven Porter, said he hoped it would bring a new era of peace to Ettrick Terrace: “I thought it was a bizarre story and I’d been following it in the press and really thought it was a soundproofing issue. The neighbours mustn’t have decent double glazing, so we thought we’d give Charlie his very own soundproofing.”
With its lockable glass front door, the shed won’t keep out the light, but should dampen the noise.
Mr Porter added: “It’s an all-dancing, all-singing hen hut. It took a day and a half for a couple of men to make – if someone commissioned it, it would cost in the region of 1,000 to 1,500.”
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Weather for Selkirk
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 7 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North east
