Grumpy Old Man
Well following my rant about the football I believe there is a strong possibility that I could be turning into a grumpy old man. Let me give you the evidence.1. Driving back from my parents on Christmas morning I noticed that the recently resurfaced road had already been dug up only two months from it having been completed. WHY? Can these Muppet's not sort it, hey how about talking to each other planning, ah but that would require a basic level of intelligence.....grump, grump, grump.
2. Now please do not misunderstand my next grump. I understand completely and sincerely the need to grieve for those you have lost at Christmas and this is not my beef. However, close to our house is a cemetery, Christmas morning there were many, many people visiting the graves of loved ones. Again I stress I completely understand their need to do this. But do they need to totally block the road, double park and cause utter traffic mayhem on an otherwise quiet morning. How about asking for a highway code for Christmas or better still a driving license grump, grump, grump.
3. Why is it when you are sat in a resraunt (yes the Punjab) do people think it acceptable to allow their children to run around the tables screaming and shouting? Our children are sat quietly, yes I know they are older but they have always sat quietly and if they have not been able too we have taken them out. If your children can;t allow others to enjoy a quiet meal then get a take away grump, grump, grump.
4. The clincher was my Christmas present is someone trying to tell me something?
Now please do not make any mistakes, these are just internal grumps I would never actually challenge any one about them.
5. People who do not have the courage of their convictions grump, grump, grump.
Labels: Stuff
posted by Stuart @ Thursday, December 28, 2006
3 Comments:
This comment has been removed by the author.
The thing about the road is worse than just that they can't get organised. The law actively prohibits them from doing everything in one fell swoop. They are only allowed to apply to have the road dug up for a limited amount of time. The time is so short that they can't do more than one thing. In fact, in some cases, they can't do everything that they want in one go so they have to dig it up, do some work, refill then dig it up again later. How about that for making you grump.
Close, but not quite Merlin. There are some problems about road opening notices (including around being able to accurately predict duration and getting fined for over-runs), but length of period isn't often a problem in my experience (and we dig up one f of a lot of roads!).
You're right though that the law does govern this whole area and recent changes extend this. For example utility companies and the local highways dept meet regularly to share programmes for capital and planned maintenance works and once a road has been resurfaced it becomes 'sterilised' and can't be dug up for a given period (on most roads this is being extended to 2 years).
So why was the road dug up just after resurfacing? Chances are it will have been emergency work, ruptured gas pipe, water leak, sewer collapse, damaged cable, whatever. And given a choice between having the road explode, subside as it's washed away or have a neighbourhood deprived of electricity for 22 months...
Of course one can ask good questions about why planned capital work and maintenance programme discussions haven't truly delivered the joined up thinking that the New Roads and Streetworks Act envisaged and you need to look to the ridiculous constraints and motivations that privitisation has brought to the utility companies. As for the amount of unplanned and emergency maintenance, well the massive reduction in planned maintenance since privitisation (it don't keep the share price high!) has much to answer for.
So remind me, who was it that set that whole privitisation of utilities in motion, without adequate regulation to compensate for the fact that commerce drives certain priorities? Ah yes, for all Blair's inadequacies, let us not forget the legacy that the Tory scum left us.
;-)
PS Stuart you may be becoming a bit of a grump, but it is amusing for the rest of us to watch, so don't stop!
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