John Redwood MP writes: There are so many places now making it difficult or impossible to drive on main roads. Councils who plead poverty and claim increases in grants from Whitehall do not count or are in effect cuts seem to have endless money for reducing the road space for vans, delivery lorries and cars.
With more of their officers working from home there is more scorn for those of us who need a car to get to work or to come to their homes to provide a service or a delivery.
There is money for line painting, money for new aggressive kerbs, money to pave over parts of the carriageway, money for more sets of traffic lights, money for more bollards, money to block one entire lane of a two lane road, money to put street furniture and plant tubs in to restrict the road space, money to keep changing the speed limit in the same urban area from 20 to 30 to 20, money to block side roads altogether, money to invent local traffic areas, money to install cameras and money to put up a multitude of signs. The more complex the arrangement the better . Doubtless there has been a fortune spent on consultants to design the fiendish ways of restricting vehicles .
There is little thought for ambulances, fire engines and other emergency vehicles. There is no thought for the army of small businesses that come to do work in people’s homes that need to bring their tools and supplies in a van. There are usually very restrictive and expensive parking policies designed to stop anyone coming by vehicle to do a days work.
Why do these Councils hate us so much? Why do they send taxpayers huge bills for making life more difficult? Why do they want the Uk to be less competitive? Why are they so anti work?
