Category Archives: Roads

Sunak’s ‘plan’ for motorists is enough to drive you round the bend

Rishi Sunak: he likes cars.

Like a bored toddler, Rishi Sunak seems to have abandoned his five-point plan for the UK’s recovery in favour of a populist attention-grab about drivers that is disingenuous, to say the least.

Look at this rubbish:

The UK was not always a nation of drivers.

It would be more accurate to say that we were pushed (nudged?) into increased use of cars by a decades-long Tory attack on public transport (I seem to recall they said they were giving us more choice by forcing us into personal transport, rather than public transport like buses and trains).

Tory-aided businesses that withdrew from local shopping parades to centralised or out-of-town malls added to that reliance by forcing us to travel further for our basic necessities.

And of course the increased emphasis on individuals driving wherever they wanted put vehicles in the hands of lunatics who insisted on driving dangerously, having collisions and generally creating a huge threat to the lives of themselves and anybody around them.

If we had better, cheaper public transport (in other words, not run as profit-making businesses by owners in foreign governments) and if businesses had not been encouraged to increase profits for the tiny minority of shareholders who benefit from them, the UK might not be as reliant on the automobile for its transport needs.

And that might make it a safer place.

In addition, much is currently being made of the fact that most cars still run on petrol and diesel – fossil fuels – rather than the emerging, cheap, clean fuels that won’t ruin the environment but aren’t money-makers for huge petro-chemical conglomerates.

Sunak and the Tories have supported those fossil-fuel giants for generations; they are contributors to the greenhouse gas pollution that is causing climate change.

And his response to measures aimed at putting a stop to these problems, and improving our lives, is to try to put a stop to them.

He has already delayed a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars for five years – much to the disgruntlement of manufacturers who have lost the certainty they previously had about the future of their industry.

Now he wants to stop the introduction of “blanket” 20mph speed limits and LTNs – Low Traffic Neighbourhoods – which This Writer had understood to be linked with the idea of “15 minute cities”, where essential amenities are always intended to be within a 15-minute walk.

This would require those businesses that had withdrawn to out-of-town malls and centralised business districts to come back out to the people they serve, instead of making us go to them – and it would be easy to conclude that those firms may have leaned on Sunak to change his policy.

And it is his policy; these measures were introduced by the Conservatives.

Remember also that the Welsh government expects the 20mph speed limits to save up to 100 lives and prevent 20,000 casualties within 10 years.

Sunak can’t even get his story right:

And he isn’t the only one. Look at this response to Transport Secretary Mark Harper’s attempt to demonise left-wingers and the “Metropolitan bubble” (whatever that is) with false claims that we “vilify” the private car:

Let’s put the record straight. I live in one of the most rural counties in the UK, where public transport under a penny-pinching Tory government simply isn’t a viable means of getting about; we have buses and trains but they are few and far between, operating only at profitable times. I have to have a car to get about.

I would like that car to run on renewable fuels but I don’t currently have the wherewithal to buy such a vehicle. I hope that will change when they become the default but am frustrated by Sunak’s decision to delay the moment when that will happen.

Being in Wales, 20mph speed limits have already been imposed in my town – but not in a “blanket” way, and to be honest, such a “blanket” limit would probably be better. At the moment, constant changes between 20mph and 30mph zones are confusing and may cause motorists to fall foul of traffic police if we fail to realise we’ve passed from one zone to another and are breaking speed limits.

I don’t think there can be an argument for leaving the limits at 30mph in residential areas or near schools and shops; that is just begging for more road collisions and casualties.

As for LTNs and 15-minute cities – bring them on! My small town does have a range of shops within a 15-minute walk (if you’re able-bodied) – but we still don’t have access to everything we need. The banks have been withdrawing from this, and all nearby towns, forcing us only for our banking and business needs. And if the few cashtills that are left run out of notes, we become a cashless society whether we want to or not.

So here’s the common-sense response to Sunak’s silliness:

Sunak’s arguments simply don’t make sense. This Writer can only conclude that he may have an ulterior motive that has more to do with the demands of profit-motivated businesses than the needs – and health – of the general public.


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Grayling’s belief that cyclists aren’t ‘road users’ is more proof of Tory ignorance

It looks like a rat and acts like one, but it is in fact Transport Secretary Chris Grayling [Image: Getty].

You can’t say Chris Grayling is out of touch because the bruises on the cyclist may tell a different story!

Nevertheless, the Tory Transport Secretary has managed to plant his foot firmly in his mouth – yet again! – with the astonishing claim that cyclists are not “road users”, only weeks after he knocked one down while getting out of his expensive ministerial car.

Mr Grayling had given an interview in the Evening Standard in which he had said “cycle lanes cause problems for road users”, so in Transport Questions in the House of Commons, Labour MP Daniel Zeichner tackled him on it, asking: “I was wondering if he could clarify for the house exactly who he thinks road users are?”

Here’s the response: “Where you have cycle lanes, cyclists are the users of cycle lanes and the road users are the users of the road. It’s very simple.”

Not really, Mr Grayling! Cycle lanes are part of the roads, and cyclists are just as much road users as motorists or – for that matter – people on horseback or in horse-drawn coaches!

But never fear! Here’s Olympic cycling legend Chris Boardman, who took Gold in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, to explain.

Mr Boardman, a policy advisor for British cycling, said he was “embarrassed” by Mr Grayling’s claim.

“The Transport Secretary’s comments demonstrate an astonishing lack of knowledge about how seven million people regularly use the roads in this country,” he explained.

“I feel embarrassed for him. If he truly thinks the roads are not for cyclists then what am I paying my taxes for?”

Mr Boardman added that cycling was at “crisis point” and segregated lanes were “incredible rare”, and it was going to be “impossible to meet government targets on a diminishing budget of less than £1 per head.

“This is in stark contrast to the Netherlands and Denmark where more than £20 per head is spent.

“If there was ever anyone who needed to actually get on a bike and hear about the true state of cycling infrastructure, it is Chris Grayling and I’d be delighted to go on a ride with him.”

Underpinning all of this is the frankly staggering fact that Mr Grayling is the UK’s Secretary of State for Transport. He should know all this!

He should understand that cycling is in crisis because his policies are causing the crisis!

But then, when Mr Grayling knocked over cyclist Jaiqi Liu, he didn’t even know enough to realise he had been in a road accident and needed to hand over his contact details to the injured party.

Transport Minister Andrew Jones said neither party asked for the other’s details and the matter had been settled amicably since – but that’s not the point.

As Transport Secretary, Mr Grayling should have known what to do. How long must the UK put up with the ignorance of the Tories?

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Labour plans ‘biggest devolution of economic power and funding for generations’

Ed Balls: He wants to put £30 billion worth of infrastructure funding into the hands of local government.

Ed Balls: He wants to put £30 billion worth of infrastructure funding into the hands of local government.

Today’s most interesting election announcement comes from Labour, which is promising to deliver “the biggest devolution of economic power and funding to England’s city and county regions for generations”.

Plans to devolve £30 billion of funding over five years – including funding for housing, transport, business support, employment and adult skills – will be at the heart of the next Labour government’s Spending Review, if elected in May.

A Labour Treasury will allow city and county regions which come together in combined authorities to keep 100 per cent of extra business rates revenue generated by additional growth. They will then be able to invest this to support further business growth in their regions.

All areas will be able to access these freedoms and areas which choose not to have an elected Mayor will not get a second-class deal.

It’s a clear attack on George Osborne’s plan for a “northern powerhouse” – Labour is asking, why just concentrate on ‘The North’ when so many other areas outside London need help due to Tory economic mismanagement?

It is to be hoped that Labour has not forgotten its support base in this business-friendly frenzy. Will this funding be used to promote the Living Wage, for example? Will it be used to create the new work demanded by its jobs guarantee – and will they be permanent, well-paying careers?

“Local areas will be in the driving seat on key decisions affecting their local economies – with new powers over back-to-work schemes, to drive house building, and to integrate, invest in and plan transport infrastructure,” said shadow chancellor Ed Balls, ahead of today’s announcement. It seems Labour has picked up a trick from the Tories – if this scheme fails anywhere, they will be able to blame it on local government. Hmm.

“And we will also let city and county regions keep all the additional business rates revenue generated by growth… We will not only back our great cities, but our towns and county regions too. Not just urban areas, but also rural areas.”

So there is much to recommend this plan – if a Labour government in Westminster can co-ordinate successfully with local authorities, of all colours, in the regions.

Or is this building castles in the air?

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Fact trumps Tory fiction on the #RoadToRuin ‘Twitterstorm’

You’ll be aware that David Cameron and the Conservative Party metaphorically shot themselves through the head with their very first appeal to the voters in advance of May’s General Election.

Today (January 3) saw a mass movement on Twitter to get the facts of Conservative-led government across to the masses, using images and information to hammer home the realities.

The impact was so great that the campaign’s hashtag, #RoadToRuin, did not just trend in the UK but also in the USA, with around 30,000 messages sent between 6pm and 7pm. That’s 500 every minute.

Let’s have a look at some of them.

We’ll start with the infographics:

ruin1 ruin2 ruin3 ruin4 ruin5 ruin6 ruin7 ruin8 ruin9 ruin10 ruin11 ruin12 ruin13 ruin14 ruin15 ruin16 ruin17 ruin18 ruin19

ruin20 ruin21 ruin22 ruin23 ruin24 ruinsecondlast ruinlast

And here are some of the comments:

Meals on wheels for elderly in 63% decline under coalition, analysis finds. http://gu.com/p/44hjt/tw

Coalition’s VAT rate hike four years ago has cost families an average of £1,800 over four years.

1.5 million people on #RoadToRuin courtesy of the Work Programme.

#RoadToRuin when NHS pay private care home thousands of pounds for two week bed but won’t pay for nursing funding for 95-year-old.

Millions relying on foodbanks because Tories and FibDems put them on the #RoadToRuin.

Tory policy of taking money from public purse into privaet hands is #RoadToRuin.

They said they were “paying down our debts” but we know they haven’t. They said they have halved the deficit but they haven’t.

200,000 people waiting for first PIP assessment on the #RoadToRuin.

Tories will bring more low pay more insecure employment weaker employment rights in return for tax cuts for the rich.

90,000 children homeless, millions of people reliant on food banks; Tories call that a recovery.

2.25 million sanctioned – wiped off statistics. 3.45 million children in poverty. 900,000 use foot banks. Political poverty creation.

Rents and landlords need regulations. Rents are far too high and too many landlords are greedy and/or untrustworthy.

Independent Pay Review recommendations for nurses pay ignored on the #RoadToRuin.

220,000 less meals on wheels served to vulnerable people in 2014 than 2010 because of Conservative cuts.

Public sector workers didn’t cause greed-driven global banking crisis – that was bankers – who are still being rewarded today.

Mervyn King says no-one to blame for financial meltdown. Tory fibbers blame previous government.

After housing costs, 14.6 million (23.2 per cent UK population) in absolute poverty 2012-13, up 600,000. iaf.gd/lts

If you think things are bad now, Osborne still has 60 per cent of his planned cuts to make.

Govt doesn’t want public to challenge their policies in the Court of Human Rights so it wants to scrap Human Rights laws.

UK government to sell Eurostar stake before general election. Selling off family silver is #RoadToRuin.

Austerity is an excuse to shrink the state and sell off profitable public assets like Royal Mail leaving us on a #RoadToRuin.

Iain Duncan Smith to accelerate benefit reforms to stop Labour reversing them fw.to/EM13uib

Povery, hunger, foodbanks, privatisation of OUR NHS, zero-hours contracts, workfare, lies and broken promises!

Two companies to run more than half of privatised probation services. #RoadToRuin or complete insanity?

How many of these new jobs are low paid, don’t reach the tax threshold and have to be topped up by tax credits?

David Cameron is taking UK down a #RoadToRuin by forcing fracking and removing landowners rights.

The Tories scrapped rent controls for housing.

The Conservatives must go because they can never admit they are wrong e.g. badger cull. They will keep us on the #RoadToRuin.

Tories don’t care that we’re on the #RoadToRuin – they already have profitable consultancy positions lined up and the cuts won’t affect them.

400,000 children being taught by 17,000 unqualified teachers. Just not good enough. Failing our kids’ future.

With 400 tankers going to every fracking well every road will be in ruins.

Government is not properly regulating private companies and are allowing private companies to rip off public.

If the Conservatives win in May, our NHS will be lost forever.

If majjority of ‘jobs’ created are unpaid workfare, what happens to existing workforce competing against free labour?

Children shouldn’t go to school hungry or go home knowing they won’t eat till the next day. David Cameron, shame on you.

Tories like to keep us in a climate of fear and insecurity – makes their progress on the #RoadToRuin easier – that is, the road to OUR ruin.

Most of us plebs aren’t too savvy when it comes to economic stats but we know by instinct we’re worse off and being lied to by government.

For generations, people fought for a better world. Much of what they achieved has been undone in five years under the Conservatives.

I wasn’t born at the start of the war yet I paid the war debt down. Why the rush down the #RoadToRuin to pay a debt so quickly? We have time.

Bankers crippled the country. They got off. Decent people suffer.

They are taking away the dignity of the disabled.

Don’t become sick, disabled or old. You will be chucked out of Dave’s limo like a fag end discarded at the traffic lights.

The last word – in this article – goes to Yr Obdt Srvt, because it’s important:

Every Tory campaign statement is a step along the #RoadToRuin – let’s make sure they are ALL debunked as thoroughly as their first poster.

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A Russian Joke about Jeremy Clarkson – Beastrabban\’s Weblog

Jeremy Clarkson

Earlier this evening, in my post about Mike’s article asking that we all look out for and care for those, who will be alone, disabled, depressed and vulnerable this Christmas, I told an old Russian joke about the propagandistic nature of the Soviet press, writes The Beast.

The joke’s a pun on the names of the two major Soviet papers, Izvestia, ‘News’, and Pravda, ‘Truth’. The joke ran, ‘There’s no truth in the ‘News’, and no news in the ‘Truth”. I remarked that the situation was actually reversing, and that despite the considerable restrictions on the press in Putin’s Russia, the Russian press seemed to want to present a far more objective picture of the suffering of Britain’s poor than our own, supposedly unbiased, ‘free’ press.

Well, Communism has fallen, but Russian journalists were swift to point out that, at least when it came to the road infrastructure, capitalism still suffered from glaring contradictions as per Marxist ideology. The Russian newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda, succinctly summarised this with a joke about Jeremy Clarkson.

Read it on Beastrabban\’s Weblog – if you think Clarkson’s a joke anyway, this will make you laugh.

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DVLA Website STILL Lets People Check Neighbours’ Benefits – Benefits and Work

[Image: ipayroadtax.com]

[Image: ipayroadtax.com]

Here’s an important warning from the Benefits and Work blog:

The DVLA is still letting visitors to its website find out if their neighbours are claiming certain disability benefits, in spite of assuring the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) that it is no longer doing so after the ICO held that “releasing this information unnecessarily reveals the personal circumstances of individuals using their vehicle”. The DVLA vehicle check service is now receiving over 1.5 million visitors a month.

At the beginning of July we warned readers that a new vehicle check service on the DVLA website allows visitors to find out whether their neighbours, friends or relatives are receiving the higher rate of the mobility component of disability living allowance (DLA) or either rate of the mobility component of personal independence payment (PIP).

We argued that disclosing this information was a breach of the data protection laws. Initially, DVLA denied that this was the case.

However, after multiple complaints to DVLA and the ICO by Benefits and Work readers it seems that DVLA have now quietly made changes to their site. Unfortunately, we have been contacted by several members already to say that the changes have made no difference.

It appears that the tax class category has now been removed from the DVLA look-up service.

But at the top of the screen there is an entry entitled:

Vehicle excise duty rate for the vehicle.

For people in the disabled tax class this, we understand that this states:

12 month rate: £0.00

In other words, it is still possible to work out who’s claiming disability benefits from this website.

Read the rest of the article on the Benefits and Work website.

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Government signals biggest disaster ever for Britain’s roads – privatisation

Gridlock: Under Coalition plans for transport, motorways and major 'A' roads will be clear - but the roads YOU use will look like this.

Gridlock: Under Coalition plans for transport, motorways and major ‘A’ roads will be clear – but the roads YOU use will look like this.

The Highways Agency is to be privatised, according to new government plans for the biggest disaster in the history of motoring in the UK.

The agency was formed under the last full Tory government in 1994 and operates, maintains and improves (ha ha) the strategic road network – the motorways and major ‘A’ roads that take one-third of the nation’s traffic, in terms of mileage. These are your roads – you pay for them with your taxes. They do not belong to the Conservatives and selling them off is nothing less than the theft of national assets.

The change should signal an end to Vehicle Excise Duty, otherwise known as road tax – but there is no mention of this in the Coalition government’s press release, so it seems likely that the Tories in charge of this project are hoping to siphon your tax money into private hands as profit again, as was the aim with their NHS privatisation.

It may also signal the arrival of tolls on the major roads, creating a two-tier road system: The motorways and ‘A’ roads for rich people and wealthy corporations; the other roads for less wealthy private citizens and smaller firms. Of course the other roads, maintained by local councils, will go to wrack and ruin as they become more clogged with traffic and the surfaces are worn down.

The press release states that the “reforms” (ha ha) will be “tackling decades of underinvestment in roads” and will be “backed by legislation” to ensure “future governments cannot walk away from these commitments”. That’s a mistake – no government may be tied by the decisions of its predecessor and the Coalition knows this. If Labour gets in, it could reverse everything.

The Coalition wants to make the Highways Agency an attractive prize for private investors, which is why it is providing – out of your tax money – “additional funding of £500 million for electric vehicles and £12 billion for road maintenance and resurfacing”.

(Chris Davies: Think how many hospitals you could build for £12.5 billion… Oh, but no – this is money for rich people so you couldn’t possibly contemplate putting it to good use!)

In order to sweeten the deal for future shareholders, the press release says “motorways and trunk roads will get extra lanes, smoother, quieter surfaces, improved junctions and new sections in key areas under the plan published today (16 July 2013) by Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin”.

The £28 billion of total investment – £28 billion in a time of austerity that THEY have forced on US! Michael Meacher was right when he wrote “amazing how austerity is irrelevant when the government wants it to be” – includes “a trebling of funding for motorways and major A-roads… the biggest ever upgrade of the existing network.

“The focus will be on cutting congestion and minimising the environmental impact of roads, including an extra £500 million to make Britain a world leader in electric vehicle technology,” the press release says. The congestion will go onto the network of lesser ‘A’ roads, ‘B’ roads and the rest. Result: You will be late for work.

The release foolishly adds: “These measures complement record investment in rail” – an own-goal, considering the railways were sold off in the 1990s and cost the taxpayer more money now, in real terms, than we were paying for them then.

The government’s new command paper, ‘Action for roads’ details plans to turn the Highways Agency into a publicly-owned company with six-year funding certainty for capital projects and maintenance – underpinned by legislation “so future governments cannot walk away from these commitments”. This is impossible to guarantee. Why should a future government not simply repeal any such legislation?

“It is estimated that the reforms could save £600 million for the taxpayer.” Which taxpayer? The taxpayer having to pay road tax for improvements to routes s/he can no longer afford to use? The taxpayer having to use increasingly run-down minor roads to get about and having to pay more in Council Tax for repairs? The taxpayer in danger of losing their job because of lateness caused by increased congestion on those minor roads? Or the taxpayer who just had a £100,000 tax cut on their more-than-£1 million-a-year earnings?

You’d have to be really stupid to say this was a good idea.

“Today’s changes will bring an end to the short-term thinking that has blighted investment in England’s roads so that we can deliver the infrastructure our economy needs. Backed by the government’s £28 billion commitment, they will give us a road network fit for the 21st century and beyond,” said Mr McLoughlin.

“Our major roads are vital to the prosperity of our nation, connecting people to jobs and businesses to markets. They carry a third of all traffic and two thirds of all freight traffic but in recent decades we have failed to invest properly in them.

“That underinvestment has seen us fall behind many of our economic competitors. Since 1990, France has built more motorway miles than exist on our entire network, while Canada, Japan and Australia all spend four times more on their roads than we do.”

All of this reminds me very much of Ben Elton’s novel, Gridlock. Do you remember it? Here’s the reason, quoted from The Politics of Mobility: Transport, the Environment, and Public Policy by Geoff Vigar, page 175:

“The Minister of Transport, Digby Parkhurst, is portrayed as being in the pocket of the roads lobby, and a mythical ‘Global Motors Corporation’ in particular. This fictional association reflects a general view amongst many outside the transport policy world that the roads lobby has a relationship with central government transport officials that borders on the classic corporatist ‘iron triangles’ to be found in policy-making in the United States. This view is supported by various accounts of UK transport planning in the 1970s and 1980s where the activities of a roads lobby are held to be a critical factor in explaining transport policy (Hamer, 1987; Tyme, 1978; Wardroper, 1981).”

It seems, with the Tories back in power, those bad old days are back.

The Department for Transport intends to consult on these proposals in autumn 2013. For your own good, oppose them.