Vocal Voices

... coming your way.

You will wake one morning to find roads closed - no prior warning. There will be big concrete blocks or planters blocking the Queen's highway.

If you are not local or are not "in the know" you will turn into one of these streets and drive some distance only then to find the road blocked. You wil then have to remedy the situation - somehow. Will you do a multi-point turn or reverse into other unaware oncoming traffic? Tough call.

According to the wonks it is to make the streets safer and cleaner (air pollution wise). For those affected they do exactly the opposite. In some places locals have taken matters into their own hands and have either shunted them to the side of the road or used fork lifts to take them elsewhere.

These things are a sign that power has gone to the heads of some council minions. Nobody asked for them or were consulted, they were just imposed.

The government just significantly reduced subsidies for electric vehicles.

If they truly want cleaner air for the children, getting rid of vehicles which dirty the air is a good start.

However Councils need to "prove" they are doing something.

As my grandfather used to say. If you find yourself in a hole and cannot get out, don't spend all your energy polishing the sides.

Workingman wrote:These things are a sign that power has gone to the heads of some council minions. Nobody asked for them or were consulted, they were just imposed.

Power has gone to the heads of more than just the councils.
We are supposed to be a representative democracy; a lot of politicians have forgotten that.
They do not see themselves as our representatives, they see themselves as our rulers.
Imo.

In the small crescent I live in which is a cuk-de-sac, there are 20 houses each side, and one bungalow at the entrance.
There are two cars at some houses, three at three houses. This means at times it is difficult to find a parking spot.
Saw on TV recently where vehicles were driving on the pavement nearly hitting people walking to get round obstructions installed by the local council.
Councils can find money for that but not to fill pot hoes and repair roads.
Our local council have spent several million installing cycle lanes at a very busy junction which includes vehicle entrance to Asda and the Fire and Ambulance station.
I try to avoid it if possible

One noticeable thing down here is that the local councils are increasingly "patting themselves on the back" on social media - a current example is that the High Sherriff of the County has presented to the local Mayor and the Town Council a "special certificate in recognition of the collective and voluntary effort of the community in supporting those in need during the Coronavirus pandemic", to which my response was "so what?". Of course people rallied around to help others, surely that's happened to a greater or lesser extent in every community, and certificate-issuing is just an unnecessary nonsense and waste of time.

OK, well yes, perhaps I'm just an old grouch. Guilty as charged!

Cycle lanes are also the in-thing for traffic calming here. Nobody uses them as far as I can see, and driving around town has simply become that much more complicated. Like Cruiser, there are some roads I now do my best to avoid.