An own goal for Stoke-on-Trent City Council

Don't just love it when bureaucrats, like those who work at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, are put in their place?
I've been rubbing my hands with glee this afternoon, and I reckon plenty of people who have been reading the website of my local paper, The Sentinel, will have been too.
Why? I hear you ask. Because in a David and Goliath-style battle, a pub landlord has taken on the town hall and won.
Ian Miller shelled out £400 on a marquee at the Village Tavern pub, in Joiners Square, near Hanley, so his Sunday league football teams had a place to change and dry off after matches.
Nobody complained and all was well.
Then Stoke council's planners ruled the marquee was an "eyesore" and authorised legal action, demanding it be pulled down.
However, they don't take things lying down in Stoke, as Mr Miller was to prove. He appealed and now the Government's planning inspectorate has found AGAINST the council. The outcome? The marquee can stay.
If the city council appeared to be getting to grips with improving life for people in Hanley, Stoke, Burslem, Tunstall, Fenton and Longton, perhaps they could be forgiven for such an over-the-top approach.
But the authority leaves a lot to be desired... Hanley looks like a dump; Stoke doesn't look much better; and there's still no obvious sign that all the talk of regeneration in the Potteries is actually coming to fruition.
Councillors probably wonder why the public are so hostile towards them, but it's meddling in minor matters like the pub marquee that does little to boost the council's PR ratings. With cuts in services looming, and more complaints that the public is being ignored over schools reorganisation, you'd think they'd get their own house in order before picking on the likes of Ian Miller.
Not to mention the benefits of pub regulars playing sport and feeling part of the community.
It appears the lunatics are running the asylum in this city!