Coventry's Roads to Change

[Lex]

I imagine this will get some getting used to.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-24730981

[rebbonk]

Coventry City Council said the scheme would "make better use of space" and improve the look of the area.

Sorry, you can't polish a t*rd

[Lex]

A bridge has been pulled down over the weekend as part of the work: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-28512409

[Lex]

another huge success: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-32988750

[rebbonk]

And let's not forget these idiots wanted to put a pedestrian crossing on the ring road! People and vehicles simply do not mix!

[cathidaw]

What a complete mess Coventry is turning out to be. I thought the council were short of money, but as they get grants from here there and everywhere it's almost as if they cant spend it fast enough on new 'schemes'.Forget the people,they are secondary--or fifthly--where money is concerned.

Housing officer speak)
"You're elderly and your council house needs modernizing and you are living in 3rd world squalor in 2015?
Well, my dear now we've done this new 'park like' entrance to Coventry and the new council office is built--yes I know we have already got one-but we deserved another----we may put a new bath in your 1927 bathroom - maybe new taps with water which may be even hot - That's a promise,and it will happen, unless of course Mz Lucas and colleages come up with something much more important, like improving the views from the new offices with expensive trees and plants, and better quality cakes for the council meetings they're getting quite tired of supermarket ones)
Of course, my dear I knew you'd understand.
So perhaps you'll stop hasselling me."



ke.

[rebbonk]

They don't give a stuff about us and they fully intend selling us down the river to become Greater Birmingham. Only decent thing ever from Birmingham.... The roads out!

[Lex]

And people wonder why Warwickshire doesn't want Coventry back? We have enough numpties of our own, thanks!! :p

[rebbonk]

I've said it before, but if ar$ehole$ could fly, Coventry Council house would be an airport. I see no reason to change my views.

[cathidaw]

I'have got to the stage when I don't really care if we become part of Brum-and this is a Coventry kid speaking. It would take some of the arrogant powers from Lucas and Co. who ruined the city with ideas seemingly plucked from the air, using up money which could be used to reduce or even eliminate cuts which are forecast.
They are no different to many other councils who get carried away with sudden power and forget it's all to do with people and making lives better, and also to remember that the money they spend is not theirs to spend on whims.
I wonder if the new Friargate will bring more people to Coventry.

[rebbonk]

Cathidaw,

Like you, I am a Coventry kid, but I vehemently oppose any tie up with Birmingham. Coventry doesn't need Birmingham, but Birmingham needs Coventry!

I totally agree that Lucas and her self serving rabble need bringing down. Look what these imbeciles have done to Broadgate. It'll forever be known as Mutton's patio, and what a dull dreary place it is.

But why did they spend (waste) all that money on the front approach to the council house? Who actually uses that route to enter the city? And let's not forget that with the sale of the buildings there to the University there's bound to be further redevelopment destroying the no doubt expensive work carried out to date.

Then there's Friargate. Presently the city is littered with empty buildings, will this be any different? What if a merger goes ahead with Birmingham, will the council still be taking space in Friargate?

Now let's consider the closing of the central swimming pool. The Councillor responsible admits he hasn't even read the report, and the council are refusing to make the report available as they say it's commercially sensitive. - I bet it is!

I can't prove anything, but heavily suspect that there are 'sweet' deals going on here in Coventry, with backs being scratched and friends being 'looked after'.

There are also thoughts abounding that in order to save money council meetings will no longer be open to the public. As local tax payers we have a right to know what is going on.

It strikes me that this council is looking after itself in a far too cushy way when it ought be cutting back itself the way the citizens are being asked to. But, they will push too far and they will regret it.

[cathidaw]

Hi rebbonk-Now you've made me feel a traitor.
Wherever I have been in this world I have always been proud of saying I come from Coventry.But some drastic meAsures have to be taken, and the only way to get rid of this bunch is by taking some powers from them.With this lot we DO need Birmingham.
Why close the swimming pool when it just needs some TLC

Can't think why it will cost more to allow the public into council meetings-could it be they don't want to share the cakes?

I'm facetious but their excuses are no better.

Councils should change every few years or so-like American elections. These have been there too long - so of course the system is familiar-your ' sweet deals' and all that of which I'm certain,have become a habit, and you're right they'll come a cropper one day.
It's run like a dictatorship now , and the public have no say in spite of how they try to pacify us and I'm sure any petitions by the public are laughed at and binned..I await more replies from this which I shall read on Tuesday-I'm off to Cornwall.

[rebbonk]

I hope you have a good time.

Adding to this discussion...

When I first started work I worked with an independent Councillor on the Council. He openly stated that he knew he only had one term of office and was going to get all he could out of it. Where I worked was not badly paid, but this guy seemed to be much better off than the rest, even when his tenure was over.

More recently, I was offered the chance to give a presentation on efficiency and waste removal from processes to someone quite high up from the local Council. After showing him some very basic ideas the guy was amazed and said, "Brilliant, we could save a lot of money using these ideas; but it'll take a braver man than me to try to change things."

Finally, I was once talking to an MP about fiddles and expenses claims. He quite candidly said, "Parliament is quite clean when you compare it to local authorities."

I think it's a case that everyone knows, but nobody is prepared to grasp the nettle.

[Lex]

I can't prove anything, but heavily suspect that there are 'sweet' deals going on here in Coventry, with backs being scratched and friends being 'looked after'.


I have the same suspicions about Stratford District Council; our local big developer, Tony Bird, is a member of the local Conservative Party - a lot of potential for conflicts of interest there!

[Dun Scotus]

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/roads-could-closed-coventry-potholes-9420420


Could somebody explain please how we cannot afford a most basic service of repairing roads which of course has a direct link into the increased accidents and danger for all road users and yet we scatter money like confetti on a huge white elephant project known as HS2. Perhaps we need to be reminded that the repairs to A and B class roads generally have a claim from the road fund tax, meaning that the thirty odd million motorists in this country pay directly for the maintenance of the road they drive over. There is so much smoke and mirrors going on with central and local finance now that nobody knows quite where taxes are going, but the idea surely was that people that use the road pay for it, which of course they do. A reasonable road system plus a water supply are surely the very basic things in any society, but we have levels of fantasy over this HS2 which makes decision makers unable to accept reality.

[rebbonk]

HS2 is a vanity project and will go ahead because a few people stand to make a lot of money out of it. I have yet to see a business case for it that stands up to realistic scrutiny. As I always say, 'follow the money!'

It is very difficult to single out just what road tax pays for as it is lumped in with so many other taxes. ( Taxguide (http://www.thetaxguide.co.uk/what-does-road-tax-pay-for.html) )

I think it's time that the citizens of this country were shown the true finances without the lies and spin that we are used to seeing.

[rebbonk]

I take it this has spiked your ire Dun Scotus Roads could be closed in Coventry if potholes prove too expensive to repair (http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/roads-could-closed-coventry-potholes-9420420)

Frankly, I think the sooner that Lancaster is removed from office the better.

[cathidaw]

If some of the road fund tax is supposed to fund the repairs, why is it that many people do not have to pay road tax-I have been told various reasons including -- 'it's to do with the emissions. So why should low emissions have anything to do with the wearing out of the road surface.
Sorry if I sound thick.

[Margaret]

As I understand it, only disabled vehicles are exempt from the road fund tax, or from part of it.
Electric vehicles don't count because there aren't enough of them. My understanding is that when the motorways were built in the 1960's it was argued that the road fund tax should be hypothecated, meaning a separate fund set aside purely for the repair of the roads. But that never happened, although the strange thing is most drivers if you were to ask them say that they understand the tax they pay is for the repair of the road, which it isn't.
The condition some of our A class roads is now utterly disgraceful and we have a problem in that the major road contractors are a kind of oligarchy, i.e a monopoly, so that obviously drives up the prices and they tax payer is plundered.

[Dun Scotus]

We have had a serious crisis in everything to do with transport in this country for at least 40 years.
We have a rail system that in important respects and in parts of the country is worse than the system the Victorians had. The insane project to divorce ownership of rail companies from ownership of the railtrack has created complete chaos. I agree about HS2 being a vanity project and of the worst kind and is merely a cosmetic.
It seems to be a mental problem that the politicians in this country have. That is they can't seem to understand that railways and cars are means of transport and there needs to be a policy that links the two. Not have this deranged situation where private rail companies rip off rail passengers forcing people back on to the roads where we have some of the most congested conditions in the world. We seem to have the worst of both worlds. The worst of the private system, grab as much as you can, and a public system that delivers no benefits to transport users.