Mt Eden milk serenade overcomes opposition

Press, 5 December 1985, Page 5

Mt Eden milk serenade overcomes opposition

FA Wellington The Mount Eden Borough Council has decided against prosecuting a milkman for using his air-horn song to alert residents to put out their milk bottles, the “New Zealand Herald” reports. Renditions of “Strangers in the Night” on the air-horn of a milkman, Mr Ross Fitness, have not been popular with some of the residents he serenades each evening. For more than a year now, a small group of Mount Eden residents have complained about the use of the air-horn, and the council

wrote to Mr Fitness asking him to stop using it. Mr Fitness persisted in using the horn even after his attempts to modify it to a single note failed. The Mount Eden Borough Council, having discussed taking legal action against Mr Fitness, has now decided against it. “When we talked about it we decided that the milk vendor goes everywhere else in the borough and noone else has complained,” said the Mayor of Mount Eden, Mrs Philippa Cunningham. “A lot of people appreci-

ate the reminder that the milkman is on the way,” she said.

Mr Fitness is thrilled by the council’s decision.

“I am just trying to give a service to my customers by using the horn and now I will obviously be able to continue to do so,” he said. Mr Fitness said he tried to cut down on the number of times he used the horn on his milk round but some people missed him because they did not hear the tune. “I have a lot of old people and a lot of young mothers on my round and they rely on me to let them know it is time to put the bottles out.”