A council has been criticised for erecting three speed limit signs in a tiny village cul-de-sac where residents say it’s virtually impossible to speed. The new 30mph signs have been put in the road in Sutton St Nicholas in Herefordshire. However residents say the signs at Millway and the adjoining Willow Rise are completely unnecessary, as it’s virtually impossible to speed on the 25 metre long road. Resident John Hollywell, 67, said he had never seen anything like it during 30 years on his picturesque street, where houses are worth up to £300,000. “It seems nonsensical. It is bureaucracy gone mad,” he said. “Why they have done it we have no idea. It is utterly ridiculous because if someone even went round the bend doing more than 30mph they would go into a house. “It is a storm in a teacup but seems to me to be a total waste of money.” One of the signs was put up right outside his house. He added: “We were not informed it was going to happen. It just happened in the last fortnight. First they came and put the post in and then the 30mph signs appeared. “I would have thought a letter would come round saying it was going to happen.” The 30mph notices were discussed at the latest Sutton St Nicholas Parish Council meeting after residents felt the chances of travelling at that speed in such a small area were virtually impossible. More
(AD Remarks ~ Perhaps they are just following rules and putting the signs up at regular intervals. But it says it all about the way we run the country, that this will happen, and on roads propably very close to this warning signs are lacking when they are desparately needed!)
THE famous white stripes of the humble badger seem to have been put to an unusual use lately, saving the taxpayer money for paint and council contractors a few seconds on their long days. Reader Kevin Maul was on his way home from work when he noticed double white lines had been painted on an S bend near the county border on the A338. Lying sadly amid the fresh paint, however, was a badger who had breathed his last more than a week before. Mr Maul, who had been posting flyers for his business Lawntender around Fordingbridge and Damerham, said: “I couldn’t quite believe my eyes when I saw him, this poor old badger who had been there over a week. “I’d seen him every day as I went by and wondered if he was going to be picked up. Then on Friday I drove home to see his body between the lines – they had painted the road, but left a gap where he lay.” More
(AD Remarks ~ This shows the strange happenings we have these days! A few years ago, surely the line painters would have removed the poor animal with a shovel in seconds.)
A Kitchener truck driver is facing a careless driving charge but on the bright side, his tooth doesn’t hurt anymore. Lambton County OPP say they stopped a big rig driver doing some driving dentistry along Hwy. 402 on Wednesday. Const. John Reurink told the Sun Saturday it’s the first time he’s ever heard of a driver being pulled over performing dental surgery. “I’ve never heard of this sort of thing occurring before,” Reurink said, adding he has stopped drivers doing their make-up, reading a map or talking on a cellphone. “Somebody doing an amateur tooth pulling? That’s a first.” Reurink said it all started June 30 when an officer was on Hwy. 402 in Warwick Township, near Sarnia, and a passing driver pointed him to a tractor trailer being driven “all over the road.” The officer found the eastbound rig and pulled it over. Cops determined the 58-year-old driver was driving so poorly because he was trying to pull out a tooth while he was driving. “The driver was very forthright with the officer,” Reurink said. The amateur dentist of a driver had rigged a string around his hurting tooth and then tied the other end to the roof of the cab, police said. “One good bump and the tooth should come out,” police explained. More
(AD Remarks ~ Wonder if the fine ends up being more than the dental charges he could have paid?)
A blundering council has wasted £130,000 of public money on a pedestrian road crossing that cannot be used. Bizarrely the puffin crossing was installed months after the same council granted residents Angela and Robin Wray planning permission for a driveway access to their house at exactly the same spot. Officials realised it would be unsafe to use the lights as pedestrians would have to stand at the entrance to the couple’s property. The lights have never been turned on in two years. Meanwhile, Kirklees Council has been fighting an expensive losing battle to try and legally ban the retired teachers from using the drive that they were given permission to build. Officials issued a ‘stopping up order’ to stop the access being used by cars, but Robin Wray, 66, and his wife Angela, 63, successfully appealed the ban at a public inquiry last month. Now councillors are coming under fire for running up a six-figure bill. To add insult to injury, if the council backs down it will cost taxpayers a further £30,000 to remove the crossing in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. Mrs Wray, a mother-of-three and grandmother, yesterday described the council’s decision to build the crossing at the same spot as ‘sheer madness.’ More
(AD Comments ~ Its hard to understand how lacking in common sense some authorites are, especially at a time when we are all trying to save money, not waste it!)
A motorist had her car clamped while she was still at the wheel. Jessie Martin pulled into the car park to make a U-turn – but two vans from a clamping firm pulled in to block her exit. Two men approached her and ordered her to switch off the engine. When she obeyed, they fitted a clamp to her car. ‘These men just came out of nowhere,’ said Miss Martin, 31. ‘I thought I was getting robbed or something. They didn’t have any uniform on, they didn’t even have badges on. ‘He asked me to turn the engine off because he said something and I didn’t hear him – and that’s when he clamped me.’ Miss Martin said the clampers – from LBS Enforcement – had only pulled on identity badges after they had attached a clamp to her car. The mother-of-four called police and her partner after the clampers warned her the car would be towed and she would be charged £80 for every half hour they kept her waiting for their money. ‘She was in a terrible state when I got there,’ said her partner Michael Jenner, 39, a roofer. ‘She was crying and felt very intimidated. If she had parked then fair enough – but she was only turning around. More
(AD Comments ~ Something needs to be done to tighten the laws so these things don`t happen. But whats go through someones mind to do this to a mother alone with her four children, in the first place?)
The workmen who painted this sign deserve to wear the dunce’s hat and stand in the corner. Bungling council contractors wrote SHOOL KEEP CLEAR outside the gates of a Bristol primary school, whose pupils could no doubt teach them a thing or two. It was hoped the wording would ease school run congestion – but the schoolboy error has provoked hilarity among parents and local residents. Days after it appeared on the road in front of Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Primary School, the workmen slinked back to paint over it – this time with the missing C inserted in the correct place. The work was done by a firm called Prestige Line Painting, which is contracted by Bristol City Council. More
(AD Comments ~ A classic `School-boy` error!)
TEENAGER Mitchel Dallimore had an unwelcome surprise as he eagerly unwrapped his first provisional driving licence – only to find the face of a complete stranger staring back at him from the photocard. Although Mr Dallimore’s name and address are correct on the licence received from the DVLA, the pupil from Hanley Castle High School, near Malvern, was shocked to find a stranger’s signature and a picture of a young woman staring back at him from the photocard. Mr Dallimore, from Pendock, near Upton-on-Severn, sent off his application for a provisional licence in good time as he plans to take his first driving lessons when he turns 17 in August. More
(AD Comments ~ Does no one check the documents are correct before being sent out?)
A mother was fined £60 after stopping her car for one minute to read a parking sign. Claire Hallam, 45, pulled into the parking bay in Lewisham, south London, so that she could look at a sign telling her when she was allowed to park in the area. But as soon as she got out to read the sign – which has a big blue ‘P’ on it, indicating parking is allowed at some point in the day – she was told by a shop owner she should “move quickly” to avoid a fine. She dashed back into her car and left 60 seconds after she had parked. However, a CCTV camera caught her on tape and she was promptly issued with a £60 fine – £1 for every second she was parked in the space. She has since returned to the spot and found that the sign allows parking for 20 minutes between 10am and 4pm for loading, but otherwise there is no stopping between 7am-7pm. Mrs Hallam, a part time school co-ordinator, said she was “disgusted” that she could be issued with such a large fine for such a short stop simply to read the terms and conditions of parking. She said: “There was a big blue ‘P’ on the sign, so I pulled over to get a closer look and see how long I would be allowed to stop for. More
(AD Comments ~ Its amazing how these things can happen to genuine peolpe trying to do the best thing.)
A baffled motorist was left fuming after returning to her parked car to find double yellow lines painted either side of it – and a parking ticket slapped on the windscreen. Bungling parking officials fined June Williams yesterday despite road markings only being painted round her vehicle after she had parked. Debt collector Mrs Williams, 58, said she has parked in the same spot on Mondays and Tuesdays near work in Wolverhampton for 18 months. But when she left her Mitsubishi Challenger in her usual spot and returned to her car after work at 4.30pm, she found newly painted double yellow lines had been painted up to her front wheels – then restarted behind her car’s boot. To cap the bizarre episode, she was slapped with a £70 fine on her windscreen – but is refusing to pay it. The mother of two, from Wolverhampton, who had never received a parking fine before, said: ‘I’m absolutely gobsmacked. There’s no way I should have to pay and I will fight it. More
(AD Suggests ~ This is another case of some councils and their petty bureaucracy, making them look stupid)
In what could give Sinbad reason enough to roll on the floor with laughter, a sailor set out to the seas armed with a mere car sat nav. The sailor ran his boat aground and was later rescued by coastguards. The sailor, probably a novice and a fellow passenger set out from London in a 32 ft Myra Two motor cruiser and were heading toward Rochester in Kent before they ran ashore near Canvey Island in Essex. Coastguards were reportedly flabbergasted to find that the £20,000 vessel was equipped with no proper navigational aids other than a satellite navigation device that was meant to be used by cars to drive along the streets of London. More
(AD Suggests ~ It would be funny if it wasn`t serious!)
CHILDREN’S Secretary Ed Balls has made a grovelling apology for his “stupid behaviour” after he was caught talking on his mobile while driving. The Labour minister said sorry after The Sun revealed he had risked the lives of his family and other drivers. His wife, fellow Cabinet minister Yvette Cooper, and their three kids were all in the car at the time. Today at a London news conference, Mr Balls said: “It was a fair cop. I 100 per cent support the police and the law. I’ve said it was a mistake. Of course I’m sorry about it. “It was a stupid thing to do and I deeply regret it.” Safety campaigners last night blasted Mr Balls – Gordon Brown’s closest ally. Mr Balls was caught last weekend after turning off the M1 near Milton Keynes, Bucks, while driving to his constituency home with kids Ellie, ten, Joe, eight, and Maddy, five. He was given a £60 on-the-spot fine and three points on his licence. The incident comes just four months after Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman was fined £350 with three points after hitting a parked car while using her mobile. More
(AD Thoughts ~ If the law makers can`t follow the rules, what example does that send to the rest of us?)
Council workers who were sent to renew the white lines along a busy road in Birmingham stuck to their task when they came across a 3ft pothole. Instead of having it repaired they just painted over it. More
(AD Thoughts ~ Perhaps the workers will come back soon after, and repair the pothole!)
A council has been condemned for wasting taxpayers’ money after it built a cycle lane just 8ft long. At little more than the length of a single bicycle, the £2,000 road marking has left cyclists in Cardiff bemused. The feature, thought to be the shortest cycle lane in Britain, has been installed to encourage green transport. Cardiff Council claims that it will help riders safely navigate a turn on a new road layout. But riders in the city say the brevity of the red and white marked stretch of road renders it pointless. Kevin Hughes, 47, a cyclist from the Welsh city, said: “It’s just hilarious. I saw it as I was cycling past and couldn’t believe my eyes. “Obviously nobody could cycle in it because it is so small. You just have time to get in the saddle before getting off again.” Mr Hughes, a member of Cardiff Ajax Cycling Club, added: “I posted a picture of it on the club forum and it’s started a bit of a laugh. “I’ve got no idea why it would be there. You couldn’t ride a bike down there anyway because cars go flying past.” Campaigners also questioned why the local authority has spent money on the cycle lane, which takes less than a second to cover before rejoining the main carriageway. Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It is just this sort of waste that raises the hackles of taxpayers. More
(AD Thoughts ~ Unbelievable! Is of any use to cylists or good use of our money?)
Truck driver caught on film with car stuck to bumper at 60mph By Andy Bloxham Published: 12:47PM GMT 18 Mar 2010 Email PrintA truck driver was captured on video going along a motorway at 60mph with a car trapped sideways on the front bumper. Apparently unaware of the situation and motoring in the outside lane, the lorry driver overtakes a group of people in a car who filmed it using a mobile phone. There is as yet no explanation as to how the Renault Clio got trapped and why the lorry driver failed to notice. The car had one person inside but the driver was not hurt. In the video, taken on the A1(M) near Wetherby, West Yorks, a passenger shouts: “He hasn’t seen it!” Eventually, the lorry driver did stop and the motorist could get out unharmed. More
(AD Comment ~ Amazing! How did the truck driver not realise?)
A driver travelling with her bonnet up – mostly obscuring her view – was among 30 dangerous motorists caught by Dorset Police in a safety crackdown. The 53-year-old woman, who was stopped in Weymouth, said she was on her way to the garage to have her car fixed. Another driver was steering with his elbows while rolling a cigarette, while another was reading from a clipboard on the steering wheel while driving. More
(AD Comment ~ Lucky no onr was hurt. It`s amazing what goes though drivers heads sometimes!)
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