HEALTH and Safety officialdom do more harm to their cause than anyone else.

No-one can dispute the aims of any health and safety policy is to keep people healthy and safe.

It does what it says on the tin and shouldn’t be that complex.

And most of the restrictions for communal areas in blocks of flats owned by South Oxfordshire Housing Association (SOHA) are sensible with the correct intention. Large or bulky possessions such as bikes, pushchairs and potplants left in hallways would be an extra danger for panicky people trying to flee a fire with smoke obscuring their visibility. But a doormat?

Is it really feasible that a doormat presents a clear danger of tripping someone up?

Of course it doesn’t, and it just smacks of a sledgehammer to crack a nut that ‘offenders’ face disposal costs and legal action.

The approach leaves the whole policy open to ridicule.

SOHA should be being praised for efforts to save lives, but this all-too-familiar health and safety zealotry could prove totally counter-productive in winning over hundreds of tenants.