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Showing posts with label motoring. Show all posts

Rotten Boroughs: Lancashire County Council

Hat tip to the Moose for highlighting the balmy scheme by Lancashire County Council to reduce the speed limit in residential areas from 30 to 20mph across the entire county by 2013.

The response to this hair brained idea is, to say the least, unfavourable. But that doesn't seem to worry the council who intend to implement it anyway at an estimated cost of £9 million - so it is good to know that in these times of 'all in it together' and spending cuts that this quantity of money can be just flushed unnecessarily down the toilet.

Perhaps the honorable councillors of Lancashire should have had a word with Ken Livingston. When mayor of London, Ken had a policy of "encouraging councils to make a wholesale switch from 30mph to 20mph, amid evidence that the slower limits could cut accidents and injuries by half."

But the policy was scotched when Boris Johnson came to power. Boris said he would support 20mph zones in residential areas where local people wanted them. But because of "finite budgets", priority would only go to areas with a high number of accidents - especially those involving vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians. The Green Party attacked his decision, claiming it would cost " hundreds" of lives.

Scare mongering it seems runs rife in this idea. In Lancashire, councillor Tim Ashton says he wants speeding in built-up areas to be ‘as taboo as drink driving’ in a bid to halt the thousands of people killed or injured on the region’s roads every year. Only, as the Moose quite rightly points out, 702 deaths in 2009 is hardly thousands and a lot of those weren't caused by speeding.

Then it gets worse. Apparently, LCC wants to appoint vigilante groups of local residents and arm them with speed guns to help enforce the limit. Councillor Ashton says “I think there will be a huge amount of support for what we are doing but if there are critics I will take them head-on."

I suggest he should read his post bag and stop being so bloody arrogant.

It's a daft idea, the ratepayers oppose it and there's no money to pay for it...

The death of the speed camera

Speed cameras are dying all over the country!

Love 'em or hate 'em? There are camps who claim they are an indisputable aid to road safety; there are camps who claim they are nothing more than revenue raisers. But now they are going. Why?

Well, you can thank Gordon Brown. He saw an opportunity to put the costs of running the system on the local authorities whilst at the same time ensuring that the fines collected went straight to the exchequer. It's the same trick he worked with parking fines.

So now that budgets are being squeezed by the new government, local authorities can no longer afford to maintain the cameras. This is scandalous as nobody wins except speeding motorists.

It is not reasonable to expect council tax payers to subsidise revenue raising 'safety' machinery where there is no benefit to them. Equally, central government will not get any revenue, and so will have a hole in its finances.

It seems the great revenue raiser has become a revenue loser. R.I.P.

Bring back the Traffic Wardens

I don't know about where you live, but the parking situation in my town is beyond a joke!

We have two types of traffic enforcement here. Firstly, we have the Parking Attendants who are employed by the Borough Council. They look after the Council operated car parks and the street area designated for residents' parking only.

Secondly, we have the Police. They are responsible for parking on the public highway in restricted waiting areas, on yellow lines and the like.

So what's the problem? Well, the Parking Attendants walk between their designated areas totally unconcerned by all the cars they walk past on the way that are illegally parked. Not their responsibility. Nothing to do with them...

Meanwhile, the police are busy out doing Policey type things - you know, like patrolling their beats or doing community stuff or even, God forbid, catching crooks. So they don't have time to spend issuing parking tickets. Indeed, in my view, nor should they have!

So the result is that people here don't waste money on things like car parks when they know they can park anywhere on a yellow line and have a 99% chance of getting away with it. And if they do get the odd ticket, then it's still cheaper than paying for all those days using the car park.

I know one guy who parked in a one hour restricted parking bay for three months, often without moving his car for a long as three days at a time. Honest. Eventually a Police purge on that area resulted in a ticket. But parking a car for three months for the price of a single ticket still looks to be a good deal...

All this mind numbing nonsense has come about in order to promote yet another of New LieBore's stealth taxes. By criminalising on street parking, they made it the responsibility of the police rather than the council - and by doing this the money raised in parking fines goes to the Exchequer rather than the Council. Nice one Gordon! Drop Joe Public in the crap - it's alright as long as you get the money to squander.

To sort this out, the new Government needs to decriminalise parking, reinstigate Traffic Wardens and let the Council use the parking fines to cover the cost of the wardens. This will also release Police to do what they are supposed to be doing, penalise persistent offenders who are clogging up our towns, and make a contribution to local government funding.

So go on, Cleggeron, add this to your bonfire of LieBore laws at the earliest opportunity.

Pigs can't fly....

..but apparently cars can!

A company in America - where else? - has announced that it hopes to be selling a flying car by the end of 2011.

"It's the next 'wow' vehicle," said the company's vice president. "Anybody can buy a Ferrari, but as we say, Ferraris don't fly."

Now I don't know about you, but the thought of motorways in the sky fills me with fear and trepidation. I don't really fancy sitting in the back garden waiting for some spotty faced teenager to drop out of the sky on my head in his stolen flying Ferrari!

Apparently, the target market is private pilots who want to get round the inconvenience of having to use a car to get to the airport. You just drive up, unfold the wings and off you go! Magic - except that a purchase price of around $194,000 would pay for a hell of a lot of taxis.

And the dropping out of the sky problem? No problem at all! It comes with an optional full vehicle parachute - so provided the driver remembers to sound his horn on the way down, I should have time to duck out of the way just before it flattens my house...

Why cutting alcohol limits won't work

At this point I have to admit that I once lost my licence because of drink driving. It's not something I'm proud of and it's not why I am criticising the proposals to lower the drink driving limit from 80 to 50 mg.

Let me explain the circumstances. I was invitied by an old neighbour to a dinner party that I knew perfectly well from past experience it was going to be a boozy affair. I planned accordingly.

First, I asked her whether it would be alright to leave the car at her house and pick it up in the morning. Then I diverted to the supermarket to pick up a bottle of wine and at the same time take some money out of the hole in the wall so I could pay the taxi driver.

So what went wrong?

Simple really - and this the crux of the matter - when you have had a skin full all logic and coherent thought tends to go out the window. At two in the morning, I decided that it was all a load of fuss about nothing and I would drive home. I was nicked, being 2.5 times the legal limit.

I went to court and pleaded guilty. I explained that this would never happen again because having been caught by the catch 22 of logic and drink, next time I would take the taxi both ways. It cost me £600 and a 12 month ban. I deserved it. I was stupid.

The reason I don't think it is necessary to lower the legal drink limit is that when you are pissed, you don't think clearly and you won't be told! You certainly don't worry about the legal limit and whether you are over it.

Yes, it might make people think before they start drinking, but no it certainly won't stop poeple once they've started - and most serious accidents involving drink are caused by people well over the limit.

I don't drink at all now if I am driving, not because next time it's a three year ban but because it's stupid and irresponsible - and that's not something I do twice...

Does you good to get away...

April Fool

The court jester with his puppet
- or should that be the other way round?

Here's a couple of corkers - but are they true or not ?

The Care Quality Commission has been given the powers to fine Trusts if their hospitals and services are not up to scratch. So, basically then, we are going to have to employ extra people to improve services, employ extra people to monitor performance and produce yet more meaningless statistics so that if the targets are missed, the Government can fine itself.
All of you people who took advantage of the scappage scheme now know where the funding is coming from - the new showroom tax brought in today.

And here's one for next year's list : The showroom tax will only last for one year! Yeah, right...