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JR: How much more money will our council waste?
BH blogger JR is back and he's not happy about the new artwork at Aylesbury's bus station.
I started out with my 'Vale of the white elephant' blog, but had I known about this piece of so-called artwork at the bus station I would have given it a mention.
I cannot believe it cost 50,000 – and they have the bare-faced cheek (some would call it brassneck) to openly admit it on the letters page!
What is wrong with the artwork adorning the hoardings around the carbuncle that is soon to be our new multi-million pound theatre complex?
In a few months' time I suspect it will all be torn down and consigned to the bonfire. That would certainly cheer up the dim & grimy bus station entrance.
Or what about holding a competition? Ask local graffiti artists to submit some artwork & let the public decide with an online vote. And what about local artists? Why not give them the chance to submit their ideas? After all, the artwork just inside the Friars square (Bourbon Street entrance) is actually quite good.
Even giving the winner 1000 and factoring in the costs for materials, equipment etc, the costs to the public would have been nowhere near 50k
How much more of our money is this council going to waste before somebody puts a stop to the seemingly bottomless purse?
And so back to that other White Elephant – the bridge.
I was only saying to a colleague today, I wonder how long it will be before some cretin tries to take a car or motorbike over the bridge – and the Herald publishes a letter from someone who talks about running over the bridge & wondering how long it will be before they run straight out into traffic.
Surely the fact that you can see traffic crossing your path up ahead as you are running over the bridge is a bit of a giveaway that your path 'may' be obstructed?
And what about Aylesbury motorists not using their indicators?
That's only the tip of the iceberg. I've said it before & I'll keep saying it, the traffic is going to hell in a handcart.
It really is unbelievable just how many motorists there are out there who do not think the highway code applies to them – one particularly sunny morning whilst driving out to Wingrave, the traffic was backed up past Rowsham and a quick count showed every fourth or fifth car had fog lights switched on – and this was a sunny morning with these cars sat on the tail of the one in front.
As the highway code is quite specific on this point, why is our local constabulary not taking action?
All it needs is one PC and one PCSO. The PCSO takes a photograph of said car & driver, the PC hands out a 30 fixed penalty ticket. They won't be holding the traffic up as it is stop-start anyway – and this can be done on every road coming into Aylesbury. Imagine the revenue.
And imagine how many people they'd catch not wearing seatbelts.
And talking of highway codes, has anybody from the police or council ever bothered to read a copy?
Point 240 You MUST NOT stop or park on...a tram or cycle lane during its period of operation.
Point 243 DO NOT stop or park opposite or within 10 metres of a junction...on a bend... where you would obstruct cyclists' use of cycle facilities except when forced to do so by stationary traffic.
(by 'cycle facilities' does that mean cycle paths?)
You wouldn't think so if you were to venture along Turnfurlong during the day. Today I noted a car abandoned in such a way that half of the body was covering Conway Close and this year seems to be worse than ever for parking, the cars are now parked up as far as Fairmile.
Now, some might say that the highway code is just a set of guidelines and not actually the law – so what's the point in having them then?
In actual fact, some points in the code ARE legal requirements, MUST/MUST NOT is a legal requirement – as in seatbelts MUST be worn or MUST NOT park on a cycle lane... (a cycle lane is defined as 'marked by a white line (which may be broken) along the carriageway' – exactly what we have along Turnfurlong, although you would never know it.
Ah well, tomorrow's another day.
JR
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Weather for Aylesbury
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
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