The sight and sound of children playing could be delightful or irritating, depending on your point of view. Yet now a school has blocked a planning application for new flats in Hornsey, north London, on the basis that the flats’ balconies will overlook a children’s playground.

Chairman of the school governors said that these properties overlooking the playground could be bait to paeodphiles. ‘We’ve all read of cases where there have been examples of parents, families, fathers who are involved with child pornography regardless of whether they have got their own children or not. It’s not acceptable’, he said.

The chairman conjured up the possibility of people snapping playground images, and using them for seedy purposes. ‘In particular these days where you’ve got increased zoom lenses on mobile phones that people can take pictures.’ Which raises some questions: what about flats overlooking streets where children play? This approach to planning could make building houses quite tricky…