I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve

Powerful words, allegedly spoken by Admiral Yamamoto after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

Following up on yesterday's letter, I called it's author at SBC to discuss some points. After a protracted conversation I was left no further forward in getting to the bottom of the issue. The end of the conversation was a suggestion to get in touch with the Community Council - via a non-existent noticeboard.

After some considerable digging I unearthed a contact for Community Engagement at SBC. I contacted her and was offered an incorrect email address. After yet more digging I located the correct email address for the Community Council chairman and sent him an email enquiring where and when the next Community Council meeting was to take place and that the process was to get an item on the agenda.

Within 30 minutes a response was forthcoming with an invitation to call him to discuss why I wanted to speak to the assembled council. I called. Some 45 minutes later, after outlining the letter and my response to it, I got off the phone with an action step to canvas my neighbours in East & West Mews.

I constructed a quick note to the neighbours and delivered it (at the time of writing) 4 hours ago. So far out of 21 leaflets sent, I've had representations from 6. All in the same boat as me to a greater or lesser extent. Three of them have already responded to the SBC author, many in very similar terms to my own letter, two of the others have decided that as they are now "not alone" that they too are going to respond to the SBC author.

The man at SBC, I fear, does not know what he has ignited here - feelings are running high and he is the current target of venomous words from otherwise peaceable citizens. I'm looking forward to the response to my missive that should land on his desk on Friday morning.