To think he should leaf blow somewhere else?

[Imdunfer]

I'm sitting in a ten acre park waiting for an exercise class to start while drinking a coffee. I'm the only person sat in this park. There are some other people around but they're all moving through to somewhere else.

Is it unreasonable to think that the guy with the incredibly loud petrol power leaf blower should be blowing the leaves in another area first, rather than right beside my bench?

Leaf blower not lead blood!! Why can't we edit titles?

He doesn't expect you to do anything. He's doing his job. If you don't like it move.

He has a routine so he doesn't miss bits out. YABU, just move!

He was probably following a route through the park, rather than have to come all the way back to blow leaves from a bench that you were sitting on. Poor blokes probably got a pile of jobs to do and would like to eventually get home. Why didnt you just move if you didnt like the noise?

Well one might argue that as a taxpayer the OP enjoying the park is the customer of the park employee. Not some inconvenient interloper. Patrons should be accommodated.

If you were in a nearly empty restaurant and a worker insisted on sweeping under your table instead of any of the many empty ones, you wouldn’t be annoyed?

Really? I don’t think so.

The groundskeeper was pretty rude. If the park is 10 acres he could have deviated from his route. He was blowing leaves, not performing neurosurgery.

Too stubborn to move whilst waiting for an exercise class!

Brilliant.

Leaf it out, OP.

Did he, aye?

The park is otherwise empty? So why can’t you move and sit on another bench so that the man can get on with the work he’s paid to do?

It's probably the outdoor equivalent of when you're in a completely empty car park and the only other car comes and tucks in right beside you

Maybe he was lonely OP!

Leaf him alone.... I'll get my coat 😂

I agree with you OP. The bloke has got eyes in his head and can see that somebody is sitting there. But he doesn't care. Most men i have encountered that are blowing leaves around ( not seen any women doing it funnily enough), don't seem to care about the racket that those blowers make. There are quieter methods (aside from using a sweeping brush or lawn rake), such as ride on vehicles that suck up the leaves and quieter models of hand held ones too. Totally oblivious. I find they usually spend hours blowing them around, sometimes into a pile, then leave them there to be taken by the next gust of wind and distributed all over the area that has been cleared. I think they are a waste of time and greatly add to our increasingly noisy modern day environment. There ! Glad i have got that off my chest.

Not leaves! 😱

Obviously park workers exist purely for your personal convenience. How could he not know that?

He sounds like a twat.

I hate leaf blowers and wish they didn't exist, horrible noisy ineffective things that are awful for the environment.

Just use a fucking rake.

Surely he is just using the tool that his employer provided him with though?!

He'd probably prefer a ride on leaf vehicle but only has whats provided!

The modern day chimney sweep. You’re lucky he didn’t bring his mates for band practice.

I actually think leaf blowers are a complete waste of time. But I guess if that's the job you've been told to do, you just have to get on with it.

Why is he a twat for doing the job he's been told to do with the tool provided? I doubt if anyone would choose to spend five times as long raking up leaves and his employer would not be impressed.

For home use, generally, yes, especially if you're just moving them about but on footpaths etc where the public walk and there is liability, they need to be moved (see my previous post re going arse over tit on leafy sludge)

How are they awful for the environment? I'm assuming you're referring to the older two stroke models rather than newer battery operated ones, which are generally being phased in on programmed replacement schedules for equipment

Are you actually going to rake half a mile or pathway??? Really....?

Well I can assure you a leaf blower does not require a penis to operate and women do use them. I'm one of them.

But then apparently women who work in horticulture are invisible

Why not rake it? Employ more people if necessary.

Leaf blowers obliterate insect nesting sites and egg sacs etc., which in turn deprives many other species of food.

Not to mention the noise pollution, emissions, soil erosion etc. that all are documented side effects of these horrible devices.

The ones I observe don't use the devices efficiently; they wag them forth and back, taking far longer than necessary. They stir up dirt and dust. Not to mention the noise.

Raking and sweeping aren't that much slower. I observe many commercial garden firms near me spending LONGER with the leaf blowers than it takes me, a 60-something woman, to sweep and rake the equivalent property.

Mowing over leaves and mulching them, if they must be removed, is far more eco-friendly than those godforsaken blowers.

Council budgets are stretched, how's that working out? Plus on a risk assessment, that's actually more risk to the staff in question and, more time not leaving our precious princess op in peace.

In that case, you go and tell all the contractors they're doing it wrong and show them how, for the pittance a council can spend for that public space.