Indyref: Aftermath

So Scotland voted to stay as the UK, hurrah. Even before the voting started various areas, politicians, councils etc were murmuring about devolved councils, extended powers and generally jumping on the bandwagon for MORE POWER!!!

What do we expect to happen next?

I'm currently arguing with a local councillor (nothing better to do and it's like a sport) as he stated that cities, towns and regions require devolution to be "empowered". I'm suggesting that bringing back a feudal system possibly isn't the best course of action and that the UNITED Kingdom is indeed, better united without factions.

I very much hope that now The Most Ungracious illegitimate child Salmond has lost we can get on with governing.

 

The first think I would like to see happen is some sort of strategy being put in place to at least attempt to repair the damage that Salmond and his band of followers have done to Scotland.

There is more unrest and division now than there has ever been, and as far as I am concerned the whole thing has been a diversion of attention and money away from issues (both here in the UK and globally) that should have been being addressed.

 

The only thing that would accelerate that process FC is for Salmond to admit he was wrong. I am more likely to win the lottery, simultaneously getting hit by a meteorite and becoming POTUS.

At least we can still bail out Scotland as we have shared currency!!

 

Sturgeon has never been anything but a "yes man". No way she can lead the SNP.

I am very much more concerned with the future of English councils, Ireland and Wales

 

So many things are a postcode lottery nowadays, and that is due to the currently devolved budgets etc --- giving more powers locally would only serve to make that worse.

I am not saying that local areas shouldn't have their say, but there are some things that should be 'to a standard', and clearly they are not.. Take the roads for example - you can have one borough where the roads are actually quite good, and then you go into a different borough a mile or so doen the road, and the roads are in a terrible state. Surely, as UK citizens we should all have the right to expect the same standards for things like roads, schools, NHS etc no matter where we are in the country?

 

The councillor I was erm "debating" with yesterday said all decisions should be made at the lowest leave (meaning the people). Fair enough up to a point but if the people make ALL decisions surely that means there's no point to a council... I also mentioned using the Localism Act might be better than multiple power bases of councils at which point he stopped (which I was quite grateful for).
Some councillors really shouldn't be in the job.

Absolutely!

 

At the moment, except in places such as London, the roads have fairly clear cut boundaries as to whom is responsible.

The normal! situation is that the local authority are responsible for the local roads, the county council are responsible for the main roads and the major roads are the responsibility of the Highways Agency (government).

Of course, when I say 'clear cut' it's nothing of the sort!!

Did you know that a lot of county councils divide their main roads into sections? These sections can be from roundabout to roundabout or from junction to junction - usually pre-designated by the council. This means that, because of budget constraints, when they are making major repairs (not just filling in potholes) they resurface the road in sections.

This sounds pretty reasonable - until you see it in action (or inaction ). e.g. You have a stretch of main road where the surface has broken up either side of a roundabout. It's sufficiently bad to require resurfacing. They only have sufficient funds at the moment to resurface one section, so they resurface between the roundabout and the next one. The bit of road (that's just as bad) the other side of the roundabout doesn't get done (not enough money) but the quarter of a mile in the centre section between the two roundabouts of that section gets resurfaced even though it doesn't need it!!!!!!

Vote Shiney for Road Minister.

 

And that is the problem - shed loads of money spent on legal processes and bickering about who is responsible.

There should be ONE body, solely responsible for ALL public roads - we could give that body a name like Highways Agency or something - and there should be a set standard that those roads should meet. If they don't meet the standard, they are repaired or renewed as appropriate.

If the roads were all kept in good nick, there would be far less claims, and the millions (possibly billions) saved could form part of the budget for the nationwide road fund

 

Yep, all sounds reasonable to me Highways Agency to maintain the highways, almost as if there's a clue in the name!
That said, our county council (Surrey) has recently got to grips with their roads maintenance having realised they were annoying people with masses and masses of roadworks followed by more roadworks caused by inefficiencies in multiple contractors. Now all work is assessed and bundled so less digging up. It has led to millions being saved in the first year alone (apparently).
AND they managed it without the need for additional devolved powers or anything! Just simple, albeit length, realisation of it can be done better.

 

Surrey are getting to grips with their roads maintenance to some degree, but they are still miles behind many other areas, not only in the amount of maintenance, but the quality of the works being done.

As a comparison:


The map above shows two roads that are quite near to me - the one with the blue line is in Surrey, the one with the red line is in Hounslow Borough. Both have been resurfaced within the last three weeks.

The surface on the Hounslow road before was pretty awful to be honest, badly rutted to the point where vehicles would tramline quite significantly, with sunken areas where trenches were back-filled after roadworks, and even in the good bits the surface was crazing, so it was only a matter of time before it gave up altogether.

The surface on the Surrey road wasn't nearly as bad, although admittedly one half of it (between Staines Rd West and Feltham Hill Rd) was pretty dire.

The Hounslow Road was stripped back over a series of night works (7pm - 11pm) over the course of a week, and then completely resurfaced over three nights (again 7pm - 11pm), and the net result is really something quite remarkable. It is now almost billiard table smooth, with all the drain and manhole covers that were even remotely suspect have been replaced.

The Surrey Road was partially closed for two weeks, and stripped and resurfaced in sections. As it is a residential road, night works were simply not possible (fair enough). However, the finished job - well, its pretty poor to be honest. Sure, there are no pot holes, and there is nothing that immediately jumps out as being an issue, but drive along it and its infinitely clear that it is a very uneven surface to the point that it makes vehicle suspension 'patter' up and down as you go.

Beside the fact that the surface on the Surrey Road is nowhere near as immediately impressive, I would not be surprised in the least if it is also not as long lived - - the pattering action of vehicle suspension (especially large vehicles) is bound to have an impact on the surface and will start breaking it up eventually.

These roads are only a couple of miles apart.