Though contractors in the United States may have to deal with some unusual requests from residents when designing a new shopping center or neighborhood, at least they don’t have to worry about fairies.
Villagers in St Fillians, located in Pertshire, Scotland, who protested that a new housing estate would “harm the fairies” living in their midst have forced a property company to scrap its building plans and start again, according to The Times.
Marcus Slater, head of Genesis Properties, first took notice of the villagers connection to the tiny winged creatures when the attempted to move a rock on the site. “A neighbor came over shouting, ‘Don’t move that rock. You’ll kill the fairies’,” Slater said. “Then we got a series of phone calls saying we were disturbing the fairies. I thought they were joking.”
When Slater’s firm tried to work around the rock, they received complaints that the fairies would be “upset.”
Community council member Jeannie Fox, who does believe in fairies, doesn’t necessarily believe that they reside under that rock. However, she does object to moving the rock because it has stood on the hillside for so long.
“I had been told that the rock had historic importance, that kings were crowned upon it,” Fox said. “It would be extremely unlucky to move it.”
The Planning Inspectorate has no specific guidelines on fairies, but a spokesman told the paper that local customs and beliefs must be taken into account when a developer applies for planning permission.
Salter had to redesign the entire plan from scratch and the new estate will now center on a small park. Hopefully, its fairy-less.
