tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25945760933198118272024-03-13T09:17:56.886-07:00Not The Morpeth HeraldNot The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-17795047752948706682020-06-26T02:57:00.004-07:002021-04-27T01:22:06.903-07:00Numbers<span style="font-family: georgia;"><span face="verdana, sans-serif">I've been pushing some web-sourced numbers around. This can bring into sharp relief stuff that might otherwise go unnoticed. I've no training with numbers, as may be obvious to anyone who has. I fret that a statistician chancing upon this blog will be snorting with derision at the clumsy missteps, spraying their laptops with a splodgy nasal mist of orange pekoe - assuming they take tea with their web browsing - and mucous. Apologies.</span><br />
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">The <a href="https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle#:~:text=typical%20passenger%20vehicle%3F-,A%20typical%20passenger%20vehicle%20emits%20about%204.6%20metric%20tons%20of,8%2C887%20grams%20of%20CO2." target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">US Environmental Protection Agency</span></a> suggests a yield of 8.887 kilos of Co2 per gallon of petrol burnt. Those are US gallons. </span><br />
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><a href="https://www.carbonindependent.org/17.html#:~:text=Details,1%20gallon%20is%204.546%20litres" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Another site</span></a>, using larger UK gallons and factoring in the extraction/production and transport costs incurred in delivering the petrol <i>to</i> the car, that it might then be burned <i>by</i> the car on our streets, gives a per gallon yield of 14.3 kilos of Co2. I'll write that again: 14.3 kilos. That's astonishing. It looks like generating Co2 is the thing fossil fuels do best when burned in air; the heat and light generated mere side effects, accidents, feeble epiphenomena.</span><br />
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">We'll stick with 14.3 kilos per gallon as a yardstick. <a href="https://www.racfoundation.org/motoring-faqs/mobility#:~:text=The%20average%20length%20of%20a,in%20London%20(8.6%20miles)" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">The internet</span></a> suggests a UK national average car commute distance of 10 miles. I suspect it could be fractionally higher in Northumberland, but we'll stick with 10 miles, or 20 miles round trip. There are nearly 700 parking spaces at Northumberland County Council's HQ, County Hall, regularly filled such that overspill spaces are used on the approach road, verges have been grasscreted and formerly pedestrian block paved precincts surrendered to add capacity. (As an aside, a little hands on research/direct observation suggests a single occupancy rate of vehicles parking up at CH of 98.5%) I doubt anyone knows for sure how many spaces there are. I've tried totting them up from Google maps satellite view but invariably lose count. A bit like Galleon's Lap in Winnie the Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood, that mysterious stand of fir trees no-one has been able definitively to count; are there 63 or 64? Except these are dead slabs of oily concrete and tarmac to store idle heavy machinery, and not fir trees. Last time I tried I blacked out at 687, overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the weeping tarmac wound. Let's, conservatively settle on 700.</span><br />
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">700 x twenty miles x 5 days a week x 50 weeks a year (there are 8 bank holidays) = 3,500,000 car miles a year. I'll write that again: County Hall generates 3,500,000 car miles - almost exclusively single occupant car miles - a year. </span><br />
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">We need an average miles per gallon figure to proceed. Car manufacturers are notoriously dishonest about the environmental hazard their product represents. </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">The industry in the UK claims 50mpg, but these figures are widely understood not to translate to real world driving conditions. </span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">A US site offers 24.9mpg or something, but US gallons are smaller. Scaling up proportionately gives a UK figure of 29.9mpg. I don't know how authoritative this site - </span><a href="https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/average-mpg"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.nimblefins.co.uk/average-mpg</span></a><span face="verdana, sans-serif"> - is but I'm persuaded to proceed with their 38.8mpg. 3,400,000 car miles divided by 38.8mpg = 87,629 gallons, times 14.3 kilos Co2 per gallon = 1,289,000 kilos Co2, or 1,289 metric tonnes of Co2 a year. </span><br />
<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><br /></span><span face="verdana, sans-serif">There are 8,760 hours in a calendar year. That's 147 kilos each and every hour of the day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. Co2 emissions of 147 kilos per hour sit beyond higher end estimates of the hourly yield of a jumbo jet at cruising speed. </span><br />
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif">The DfT's 2008 [yes, it was that long ago] <a href="https://www.sustainabilityexchange.ac.uk/files/essential_guide_to_travel_planning.pdf" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Essential Guide to Travel Planning</span></a> gives the national average annual cost to the provider of a single car parking space to be around £400. See other posts for a play with this. Parking at CH is offered free to staff.</span><br />
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif"><b>Conclusion:</b> at County Hall alone, something like £272,000 of public money are spent subsidising the emission, by single occupant car commuters, of something like 1,289 metric tonnes of Co2 every year, comfortably equivalent to keeping a Jumbo jet airborne perpetually. For a visual sense of NCC's Green Workplace Travel Planning commitment at its own HQ, picture a Jumbo flying in circles above the battlements of County Hall, day and night, ceaselessly, never landing. </span></span><br />
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<span face="verdana, sans-serif" style="font-family: georgia;">It's been up there 40 years already.</span></div>
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Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-4680675657171865452019-11-15T06:51:00.001-08:002020-07-12T06:57:05.295-07:00We have all been here beforeBack in <a href="http://not-the-morpeth-herald.blogspot.com/2012/11/in-your-dreams.html" target="_blank">2012</a> we had a look at Morpeth's fantasies about itself.<br />
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Plus ca change..<br />
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Hannah Slater's original triptych painting has been replaced with another picture, by Sarah Farooqi this time, of cental Morpeth. Or Morpeth as it might appear were Morpeth a town in the Netherlands, or a town in a benign parallel universe.<br />
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Wow! Traffic absent and tamed. Two tiny cars nosing gingerly along flanked by running, unaccompanied children, kids with balloons, mums with pushchairs, pets. Visionary shared space scenario, person-centred street-scene. Safety. Peace. Clean air! War is over if you want it. Let the bells ring..<br />
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So has Morpeth's Bridge Street changed at all over the last seven years? Has it buggery: still four lanes for cars; two for moving machinery, two for stationary machinery.<br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f8z1NAzMlI" target="_blank">We have all been here before.</a></div>
<br />Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-29921766078280511702019-11-15T02:32:00.002-08:002020-01-16T03:28:08.107-08:00Ash to ashes..In a departure from my usual transport themed excursions we've a guest contributor denied column space on the letters page of the Morpeth Herald. We badly need an e-zine alternative to the Herald as a platform for progressive thinking in the town. Morpeth Matters, the facebook page moderated by the right wing local politicians who fronted the wretched Lights Out! campaign, does not serve.<br />
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<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, 3 November 2019, 18:14:33 GMT</div>
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<b>Subject:</b> Letters</div>
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Dear Editor,</div>
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Last week Morpeth lost an old, much loved and highly valued friend: the beautiful and historic ash tree, which had stood in Dawson Place for well over fifty years, was cut down and removed.</div>
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To describe this as an act of both civic and environmental vandalism would not be an exaggeration: the tree had graced the square for generations, and was greatly loved by the local residents and also enjoyed on a daily basis by the many schoolchildren who passed it by on the way to Middle and High schools. It was a valuable wildlife habitat, and in its lifetime must have also removed significant amounts of C02. </div>
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And this was a healthy tree: despite being an ash, it bore no signs of ash dieback, nationally an increasing worry, and was as a result even more valuable. And it was removed under instruction of Karbon Homes without any advance warning or notification, without any discussion or consultation with Dawson Place residents. </div>
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To describe this as an outrage is not an exaggeration: we cannot take the moral high ground and lecture others elsewhere in the world, for example those in Brazil, about the cutting down of trees when we continue to do so ourselves here. </div>
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I called the tree a friend: that is certainly how it has felt to those of who have lived with its generous company for decades. Its loss feels like a bereavement, but it is not one that can be allowed to pass without holding to account those who were responsible. Karbon Homes have serious questions to answer for their act of wilful environmental and cultural vandalism.</div>
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Yours, </div>
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P__ S__ </div>
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PS I have enclosed before and after photos of the tree taken only this Summer and what was left of it on Friday morning. </div>
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Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-87628677118044049602019-07-04T03:06:00.001-07:002020-01-16T03:29:00.918-08:00The Joy of SurveillancePerhaps for Morpeth's local polity the fictional village of Sandford, setting for the film 'Hot Fuzz', isn't a wretched dystopia but an exemplary community to be emulated. How else to explain this <a href="https://www.morpethherald.co.uk/news/people/delight-at-new-cctv-system-for-town-374283" target="_blank">front page headline story</a>, remarkable even by the standards of the Herald?<br />
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You can't not take a swing at drek like this, so:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #741b47; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">you report "<span style="letter-spacing: -0.6px;">Delight at new CCTV system for town". Only "delight"? Nowhere a spasm of disquiet or curiosity about this beefing up of surveillance in the places where we live and work?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.6px;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.6px;">Oughtn't surveillance in public space to be conditional on the consent of the community being subjected to it, a community first persuaded of its necessity and proportionality? </span>Were Alison Byard and David Bawn elected to their respective positions on manifesto pledges to extend surveillance: have they a mandate? Perhaps they could clarify? </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.6px;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">£2,500 from the Chamber of Commerce: what was the total cost? Were there any other private contributors or was all the balance public money?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.6px;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">In whose office do the monitors sit: who is it that has us under surveillance? Does the harvester and processor of all this personal data have GDPR compliant structures, procedures and safeguards in place? Who should we approach with our 'subject access requests'?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #741b47; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">And is there no flinching, anywhere, at the glib, unexamined conflation of "the common good" with the business interests of the Chamber of Trade? Might there be metrics of "the common good" in a community other than the solvency of its commercial landlords?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #741b47; font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">Faithfully</span></div>
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Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-28112546982795347312019-01-10T08:38:00.000-08:002020-01-16T03:30:04.199-08:00Fuelling your passion for cars..<div style="background-color: white; color: #26282a; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">
The Morpeth Herald feels it's its job to fuel our passion for cars. Which is strange, considering. The automotive industry isn't short of a bob or two and can perhaps afford its own advertising. Anyway, the editor didn't like this:</div>
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Sir</div>
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You <a href="https://www.morpethherald.co.uk/news/health/children-in-northumberland-failing-to-do-average-of-30-minutes-exercise-a-day-1-9505717" target="_blank">report</a> (Jan 3rd) that activity levels of children in Northumberland fall well below the CMO's minimum recommendations, with damaging implications for their future health and well-being.</div>
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That motorised traffic in the places where we live suppresses levels of walking and cycling is undisputed. In 1970, 80% of 7 and 8 year olds made their own way to school unaccompanied, which figure had fallen to 9% by 1990, parents justifiably loathe to expose their children to the danger brought to our streets by rising traffic densities. Car use by adults effects a 'generational cleansing' of the street scene, for which service Morpeth rewards the car user with free parking worth - steering by figures that appeared on your pages - circa £650 per space per year. </div>
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Given the negative health consequences of car use on children - reduced independent mobility and activity levels being just one - what should we make of the Herald's decision, in the same <span style="color: black;">Jan 3rd </span>edition, to fluff its coverage of matters automotive with a picture of a laughing child ecstatically hosing down a car?</div>
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Is this cheeky editorial sass, or disingenuous cheer-leading for car-hegemony <span style="color: black;">by a sclerotic local paper</span>? Or are you implying that children might achieve the required levels of activity by being set to work energetically scrubbing and valeting our cars?</div>
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Mind, she seems cheerful enough, unperturbed by the existential challenges to her generation posed by climate change, legacy of her forebears' feckless fossil-fuel frenzy. Perhaps she knows something we don't.. </div>
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Faithfully</div>
Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-62872167875893172982014-10-02T05:04:00.000-07:002020-07-31T14:46:14.825-07:00Green workplace travel plan<div class="western" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Underlings,</div>
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for some years now you have been parking your private cars on the lawned area at the front of the building, scarring and killing the grass and generally making the place look like the sort of crap-heap no-one should care about. We briefly entertained the idea of asking you to desist, then remembered we do the same and so are happy to report that common sense has prevailed. We understand that it would be an insufferable indignity for those of you making short visits to the site to use the adjacent, free, short stay car park. We get that using our own empty courtyard car park would be an unpardonable affront given that it stands full fifty hard yards from the front door. And the suggestion that you might use the free all day car park circa 170 yards away? I think we all recognise a puerile insult when we see one. We, your management, are not made of stone and feel your pain.</div>
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Grasscrete is our gift to you. We've ripped out tipper trucks of turf and topsoil, laid down some plastic matrix, backfilled with some sandy medium - the crete is that? - and have scattered new grass seed to create designated parking for y'all. 11.7 thousand austerity pounds sterling; don't mention it, automobilised friends, you're welcome.</div>
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And that's not all. We've anticipated this doesn't solve the problem of traversing the five yards from your vehicles to your desks. So we've installed a ramp up to the back door. How's that going to help?, we hear you quaver. Have a little faith in our strategic acuity: a couple of these are on order.</div>
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We envisage a pool of trained volunteers drawn from the local community, 'Mobility Champions' if you will, ready at short notice to come in and scoop you, like so many soft balls of over-buttered mash, from your drivers' seats, wheel you into the building up the ramp and lower you gently into your office chairs.</div>
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For those of you who may have been hoping this latest round of alterations to the site would <i>finally</i> include a <i>crumb</i> of provision for people who've been cycling, walking and using public transport to get to work for years, we've a cracking joke: What's 'green' about our workplace travel plan? Give up? Your envious faces! Boom-tish! Bet you're all GoSmarting from this slap in the chops, right!?<br />
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We're on fire and we're here all week. In fact we're here for your entire working lives.</div>
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Anyone seen my car keys?</div>
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Regards</div>
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Bosses</div>
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Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-44240807768315550822014-09-02T03:54:00.002-07:002020-01-16T06:34:05.730-08:00Active Northumberland: Caring about Carbon<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409649359804_19465">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;"><span class="thread-subject" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409649359804_19552" title="Cycling Provision at Willowburn">Cycling Provision at Willowburn</span></span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="to table-cell" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409649359804_19551" role="presentation">To</span></span></span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="lozengfy" data-action="contact-card-menu" data-address="Roger.Tames@activenorthumberland.org.uk" data-name="Roger.Tames@activenorthumberland.org.uk" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409649359804_19555" role="button" tabindex="0" title="Roger.Tames@activenorthumberland.org.uk">Roger.Tames@activenorthumberland.org.uk</span> <span class="lozengfy" data-action="contact-card-menu" data-address="Chris.Roberts@northcountryleisure.org.uk" data-name="Chris.Roberts@northcountryleisure.org.uk" role="button" tabindex="0" title="Chris.Roberts@northcountryleisure.org.uk">Chris.Roberts@northcountryleisure.org.uk</span> <span class="lozengfy" data-action="contact-card-menu" data-address="Chris.Horner@northcountryleisure.org.uk" data-name="Chris.Horner@northcountryleisure.org.uk" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409649359804_19536" role="button" tabindex="0" title="Chris.Horner@northcountryleisure.org.uk">Chris.Horner@northcountryleisure.org.uk</span></span></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="cc table-cell" role="presentation">CC</span></span></span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="lozengfy" data-action="contact-card-menu" data-address="Peter.Halliwell@northcountryleisure.org.uk" data-name="Peter.Halliwell@northcountryleisure.org.uk" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1409649359804_19533" role="button" tabindex="0" title="Peter.Halliwell@northcountryleisure.org.uk">Peter.Halliwell@northcountryleisure.org.uk</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Gentlemen,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />this is a polite complaint and a suggestion.<br /><br />Bikes are by definition highly mobile; valuable enough to be attractive to thieves but not valuable enough to be worth equipping with integral anti-theft systems. So good quality, secure cycle parking at destinations is needed to make the bike a viable means of personal transport to those destinations. <br /><br />The bike on which I've been riding over to the Willowburn Centre in Alnwick from my home in U_____, though nothing special, would cost circa £1K to replace new. The components (pedals, saddle) and necessary accessories (lights, luggage rack, tool kit, pump, seat pack, panniers) that might readily be stripped from it by anyone with opposing thumbs and hex keys add another £250 - £300 to its value.<br /><br />There's a science and evidence base around what constitutes good cycle parking. Measured against this your bike racks are, I'm sorry, pitiful. Plainly a begrudging box-ticking afterthought proposed and approved by people who will never themselves need to use them, they fail against minimum standards and guidelines by dint of their design and situation. Butterfly racks, supporting/securing the bike by one wheel (most bike wheels are quick release these days) and known un-affectionately as wheelbenders/ wheelbreakers for reasons that should be self-explanatory, sited away from the entrance where they might enjoy the security advantage of being overlooked by people entering and leaving the building, out of range of your CCTV cameras, attached to the wall by bolts that look like they might simply be spannered out, open to the elements, unlit, are not fit for purpose. Anybody losing a bike to thieves from your racks would have a tough time persuading his/her insurers that he/she took adequate measures to protect against theft. Offering this as cycling provision is akin to making it a requirement of car-users parking up outside that they leave their car doors open wide and their keys in the ignition.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j4bQrM9ElGY/VAWf0WujtnI/AAAAAAAAAEc/td64p8QnNYI/s1600/Image0144.jpg"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j4bQrM9ElGY/VAWf0WujtnI/AAAAAAAAAEc/td64p8QnNYI/s1600/Image0144.jpg" width="240" /></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Permission from manager Peter Halliwell to bring my bike in the building has proved unworkable in the long term and has been revoked, on the usual grounds that it is an obstruction and a hazard, and contrary to North Country Leisure policy. North Country Leisure believe their bike parking provision at Willowburn to be adequate and suitable. Will you confirm this?<br /><br />Hazard though? While rates of death and injury from bikes being brought into spacious buildings currently run at zero per year, cars kill - outright in RTAs - circa 3,000 people annually. They inflict serious, life changing injury on circa 20,000 people a year. A further 200,000 people suffer minor injuries on the roads a year. Some 40,000 people a year have their deaths from respiratory disease caused or accelerated by exposure to traffic exhaust fumes. Of the, if I recall correctly, 110,000 people who die prematurely from heart disease, physical inactivity is a cause in circa 45,000 cases. This and other diseases of sedentariness (like Type 2 diabetes), to which the obesogenic car as default means of personal transport is a major contributor, threaten to swamp our health service. Yet you seem very friendly to the car.<br /><br />The surface area of the plot on which Willowburn stands is some four times larger than the footprint of the building. There'll have been great expense in acquiring this extra acreage; not for all-weather hockey pitches and tennis courts sadly, but for storing visitors' heavy machinery. This land needed engineering; levelling, landscaping, hardcore trucking in and compacting, asphalt, paving, drainage, lighting, planting. It's a beautiful, top quality, well designed car park: there'll have been significant expense involved in creating it. <br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FP1RgVkJ4X8/VAWgmKsZdyI/AAAAAAAAAEs/qKNsexwJUMc/s1600/Image0141.jpg"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FP1RgVkJ4X8/VAWgmKsZdyI/AAAAAAAAAEs/qKNsexwJUMc/s1600/Image0141.jpg" width="240" /></a> <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q7W7jFXflr8/VAWgS9R2H0I/AAAAAAAAAEk/J1Gms_lbt9k/s1600/Image0140.jpg"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q7W7jFXflr8/VAWgS9R2H0I/AAAAAAAAAEk/J1Gms_lbt9k/s1600/Image0140.jpg" width="240" /></a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />This generous car parking provision will incur maintenance costs. Research by the Department for Transport, quoted in their Workplace Travel Planning Guidance, showed the national average annual cost to the provider of a single car parking space, excluding opportunity cost and the cost of the original land purchase and build spread over the lifetime of the facility, to be circa £400. Regional variations mean your maintenance costs may be less than this (or they may be higher), but steering by this figure for want of one specific to your Willowburn centre gives an annual cost for the 140+ parking spaces you gift to car users of more than £56,000.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />If your status as "A new joint charity.. set up.. to manage and develop leisure services in North, West and South East Northumberland on behalf of Northumberland County Council" means you are transparent to Freedom of Information requests I'd like those figures: the cost of the original land purchase, the cost of building your car park, the annual cost of maintaining your car park. May I also know your annual customer/visitor numbers?<br /><br />That you make this generous provision free to the car user doesn't mean it costs nothing. People walking, cycling or taking public transport to bring you their custom pay more for your services than they otherwise would, are in effect taxed, to grease car use, while people wanting to cycle may not, for love nor money, access cycle provision that meets standards and inspires confidence.<br /><br />These are disappointing priorities for an organisation ostensibly committed to promoting physical activity and thereby public health. Doubly disappointing when reading about your <a href="http://www.activenorthumberland.org.uk/home/about-us/caring-about-carbon/north-and-west-northumberland" target="_blank">policy</a> commitment to carbon reduction - the transport sector accounts for 27% of our carbon emissions - that you should strain at the cycling gnat while swallowing the motorised camel.<br /><br />Solutions? The space required for one single car parking space can accommodate 8-10 bikes in covered lockable bike lockers like these <a href="http://cyclesafe.com/bike-lockers/ecopark/">http://cyclesafe.com/bike-lockers/ecopark/</a> . Many alternative designs along these lines are available. I'd gladly pay something proportionate to rent one of these for a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon. This would also make you a cycling friendly employer, if that's an aspiration for you.<br /><br />Please advise when you intend to remedy the sequence of oversights that led to the inadequacy of your current cycling provision at the Willowburn centre, with some provision as inviting to cyclists as the asphalt prairie of your 'free' car park is inviting to car users?<br /><br />Sincerely<br /><br />NTMH<br /><br /> <b>I'll be sharing their reply, if and when it comes. </b></span>
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<span style="color: #660000;">Sir,</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1402781726675_3733">
<span style="color: #660000;">first,
millions of public pounds a year are found to reward private car users
in Northumberland with free parking; some £713,000 a year in Morpeth
alone.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000;">Then public transport subsidy is axed for students.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000;">Are these developments by any chance related? I think we should be told.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #660000;">In
similar redistributive vein, might the money we currently waste on
school dinners be better spent handing out free bacon butties to car
users on the Telford Bridge at morning rush hour?</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1402781726675_3826">
<span style="color: #660000;">Sincerely</span></div>
<div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1402781726675_3827">
<span style="color: #660000;">NTMH<span style="color: black;"> </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #660000;"><span style="color: black;">but this one didn't get an airing on the Herald's letters page. I'm losing my touch.</span> </span></div>
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<br />Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-76037575699902773782014-05-11T06:58:00.000-07:002020-01-16T06:35:20.903-08:00Get one free, get one free.<div class="western" lang="en" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.35cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;">Sir,</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;">during financial year 2012 -
2013, pay and display ticket machines for Morpeth's 1097 car parking
spaces generated £713,315.43. This is another formula we might use to
determine how generous a personal transport subsidy, to
single-occupant car commuters, 'free' parking is: £650 a year. Worth
having.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;">No justification has been
ventured by Morpeth's car user lobby for this workers' subsidy being
exclusive to those choosing to commute by car. A curious oversight,
because those who commute to work in Morpeth other than by car need
to feed and clothe themselves no less than car commuters; they're no
less likely than car commuters to do their shopping in Morpeth and
would, I'm sure, happily receive their subsidy in the form of
vouchers redeemable only in Morpeth shops, if that would help swing
it with Toad of Town Hall.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;">We've heard rather more than we
needed to hear from Clarence the Car-Dependent Lion and
co-religionists in recent years. Perhaps we could hear something from
Pete the Pedestrian Potto, Buster the Bus-Riding Bonobo, Trish the
Train-Travelling Tamarin and Bart the Bicycling Bandicoot. Can they
pick up their £650, in whatever form, from the same distribution
points as the 'Free' Parking discs? No? Where then?</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;">Sincerely</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;">NTMH</span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" lang="en" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.35cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;"><span style="color: black;">I work in one of the distribution points for the new 'free' parking discs. 'Free' money is proving predictably popular with the recipients. Less predictable is the boundless compassion on display. We saw it first with the Lights Out! campaign: people wanted rid <i><b>not</b></i> because they personally were mildly inconvenienced by an initiative to reduce the odious, hazardous hegemony motorised traffic enjoys in central Morpeth, </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;"><span style="color: black;">but on behalf of <i><b>other</b></i> people and interests</span></span></span> - pedestrian safety, street scene aesthetics, congestion in a general sense were their prime concerns. </span></span></span></span></div>
<div class="western" lang="en" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0.35cm;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #783f04;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">I'd dismissed it as evidence that it only takes a few determined liars to Shanghai a town, but again I'm being confronted by the warm hearted humanity of many drivers. They want <i><b>multiple</b></i> discs. Not for themselves, you understand, <b>emphatically not</b> because stockpiling them while free before they start costing a quid apiece from April, but for family and friends and neighbours, and their friends and extended families and neighbours. And one for the little boy who lives down the lane. And I'd better take a dozen for the poor ginger orphans. It's the Big Society made flesh and it brings a tear to the eye.</span> </span></span></span></div>
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Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-86370105902759224592013-11-23T18:03:00.001-08:002019-08-20T06:21:23.749-07:00Don we now our gay apparel. Fa la la la la, la la la la <div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Mayer Hillman, John Adams and John
Whitelegg's <a href="http://john-adams.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/one%20false%20move.pdf">One
False Move: A Study of Children's Independent Mobility</a> shows
reductions in child road deaths and serious injuries have been
achieved, in this country, not by rendering our streets and built
environments safer for the un-carred but by effectively barring
unaccompanied children from public spaces now surrendered to high
volumes of fast moving motorised traffic. Much as rates of child
death and serious injury from alligator wrestling have plummeted
since social attitudes hardened to the sport: nobody disputes that
'gator wrestling remains highly dangerous, it's just that kids aren't
licensed to participate any more.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Hillman et al published in 1990. Since
the seventies the Dutch and Danes, in showing how public space can be
configured safely to balance the needs of car users and the uncarred,
have been catalysts of an impetus, that now has global reach, towards
better designed built-environments that prioritise the pedestrian and the
cyclist and the public transport user. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So how has research and exemplary practice shaped Northumberland's 2013
initiative to promote child
safety on the roads now the nights are drawing in? Any major
infrastructural changes in the pipeline, or proposed extensions to
areas of 20mph limits, any investment? Anything structural to tame
motor traffic? Or even a campaign urging drivers to take additional
care when visibility is poor, perhaps, to drive within the speed
<i>limit</i> rather than treat it as a <i>target</i> speed, to drive
at a speed enabling them to stop within the distance they can see to
be clear, not to force pedestrians and cyclists onto the carriageway
by parking on pavements/cycle tracks, not to be updating their Facebook
page on a laptop open on the passenger seat when driving past school
gates disgorging pupils into the gloaming? None of these things.
It's the usual <a href="http://www.northumberland.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=6270&article=2889" target="_blank">deck-the-soft-targets-in-reflectives</a> solution. Rather
than urging car users to volunteer the utmost care and
attention to those they otherwise imperil, children – we all - must
wrest attention from them with fluorescent clothing: our communities
as construction sites. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
My untutored layman's understanding
suggests one principle enshrined in Child Protection legislation is
that the adult in any given interaction has responsibility for the
child. Put the adult in a car and the polarity shifts, the responsibility is now the child's to militate the threat
posed to her by the behaviour of the adult. Something's wrong here.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Bio-engineering may be the way forward.
It's been done with puppies. Splicing genetic material from
bio-luminescent marine creatures into the DNA of future generations
will see glowing people co-existing safely with motorised
traffic. There'd be an additional benefit to this genetic tweaking: when the lights go out with the impending end of the century-long cheap oil orgy, people will still be able to read after dark by the light of their own fluorescence.</div>
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This has depressed me. Let's finish
with an up-beat song.</div>
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Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-67548776039057068742013-10-31T09:37:00.000-07:002020-08-04T06:37:34.534-07:00Watch and learn, HollandFrom Dave Hembrow's exemplary <a href="http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/" target="_blank">blog</a>, fairly representative images of Dutch kids dicing with death. The width, surfacing, and segregation from motor vehicles of the cycling infrastructure (even allotmenters are forbidden from driving and parking here. Yes, seriously!) are all well and good, but consider if you will the disturbing lack of helmets, garish hi-viz and even, in the case of the lad nearest, safety socks. The Dutch hate their young.<br />
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Northumberland Transport Planners have a much better grasp of how to keep children safe. Consider Morpeth's Blue Riband stretch of designated cycling infrastructure, the Whorral Bank cycle track.<br />
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You don't need me to tell you that no kids will be coming to grief on their bikes on this shared-use, bi-directional, cycling and pedestrian facility any time soon. </div>
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Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-85861132250382627232013-10-27T13:30:00.000-07:002020-01-06T06:30:33.881-08:00Bert wronged?<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Bert's displeased, feels his identity is too thinly disguised, and that he's getting too rough a ride, on the pages of this blog. Possibly, or it may be that Bert's become habituated to the uncritical, soft-soap fluffings that pass for press coverage in the Morpeth Herald; that being deferentially stroked by the pre-warmed, fur-mittened hands of the Herald's stenographers has come to seem normal to him, no less than his due.</div>
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During their campaign, eager to demonstrate that their concerns were widespread and not exclusive to a raucous saloon bar of boomer-generation car-dependents with an overweening sense of entitlement, Lights Out! launched a “survey”. The Herald helped, of course, circulating copies of the questionnaire to their readership with the paper, while Lights Out!ers worked the high street, from stalls festooned with their banners, placards and insignia. Impossible to mistake them for reputable, neutral opinion pollsters; overtly a pressure group agitating.</div>
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Have you ever, on spotting a chugger in hi-viz tabard, pursued him or her, perhaps crossing a street to do so, waiting until he/she finished pitching to his/her current mark, in order to say “I just want you to know that I am resolutely indifferent to the fate of the Sumatran Woolly Rhino; so chug on that, pal!”? Me neither. I mention it because there was no mechanism in place for recording numbers of people declining to be part of this self-selected claque. Nor was there a mechanism in place to prevent claqueurs filling in multiple questionnaires over the months this was happening. I witnessed a woman, hands full of shopping bags, half turned to go, giving verbal responses over her shoulder to, er.. Bill who was filling in the form for her. I tuned in at the question - and I paraphrase - “do you come to Morpeth less often now the universally detested lights are causing insufferable delays to hard shopping families?” “I do try to avoid <i>that</i> junction” was her nuanced, hedging reply. “We'll call that a 'Yes'” said Bill, ticking. It may be that my fleeting observation coincided with the sole instance of a respondent's answer being falsified, but that seems improbable.</div>
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Perhaps mistrustful of those they were trying to mobilise, fearful that if given free rein too many would express their objections with undiplomatic variants of “Oi Morpeth, get out of my way; can't you see I'm Driving here!?” the leadership helped shape responses with a vetted framework of pre-approved areas of potential concern. Pedestrian safety, street scene aesthetics, other road user safety and congestion. Worthy, considerate stuff. Of course, anyone<i> <b>really</b></i> concerned about these issues would limit their personal car use within Morpeth to the essential minimum, but we'll let that slide for the moment.. </div>
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Circa 2,000 questionnaires were filled. That represents about 4% of Morpeth and catchment's population, based on the old Castle Morpeth District Council boundaries. </div>
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The Herald gave Councillor David Towns (Con) generous platform to trumpet this shabbiness as a “very comprehensive and statistically reliable” survey proving “95% of people dislike the lights”, without so much as arching an editorial eyebrow, let alone challenging him with “knock it off Towns, you insult us and our readership with this shameful bollocks.”</div>
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Robert Mugabe, who's never achieved better than 93% of the popular vote, is sending his electoral team over to learn from Lights Out!, while Father Patrick O'Shaughnessy has gone one better - a very comprehensive and statistically reliable survey of his congregation last Sunday proving that no fewer than 100% of people believe in God.</div>
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Why does this matter? Because Bert and Clarence, with the tireless support of the Herald, surfed this brackish wavelet of car user resentment to seats on the Town Council, and that's bad news for anyone hoping to see the town develop along less car-shafted lines in future. The Morpeth Neighbourhood Development Plan, currently in consultation, offers the usual blandishments about increasing active and sustainable personal transport modal share, much as did the last Morpeth Town Plan and every County Council Full Local Transport Plan in this new millennium. This can't be achieved without in some situations de-prioritising the narrow self-interest of the carred and, as we've seen, the carred will fight and fight dirty to defend the priority to which they've become accustomed.</div>
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So back to Bert's disquiet about this blog. It's true that Fiats Medea, Nero, Herod and Chronos haven't cropped up in our occasional chats. Nor have Fiats Mellitus, Infarction, Hypertension and Infanticide. They don't exist: I'm merely riffing. However we did exchange views on the trials of <a href="http://not-the-morpeth-herald.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/its-hard-to-keep-up-with-volume.html" target="_blank">Josie</a>, Bert opining that an able-bodied adult using a single-occupant car for a within-Morpeth commute of 1.3 miles was sensible, as it rains sometimes. I must apologise, then, for having overlooked the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5EBrTRgZfM" target="_blank">rubidium</a> exoskeletons of Morpeth car users.</div>
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On a darker note, when the Herald begrudgingly added - as a footnote to a front page spread protesting the indignities suffered by drivers at the hands of “over-zealous” Parking Enforcement Officers - mention of the <a href="http://not-the-morpeth-herald.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/drivers-threaten-to-kill-wardens.html" target="_blank">verbal assaults and death threats being dished out to PEOs</a>, Bert was unable to condemn this pre-meditated thuggery (yes premeditated: police officers are largely immune to this sort of shit because empowered to visit uncomfortable consequences on the perpetrator; PEOs aren't; drivers know this and pick their targets), sided with the drivers and muttered about their deserving lee-way and leniency and periods of grace. No harm in being loyal to your constituents or knowing on which side your political bread is buttered I suppose, but I worry about this Faustian pact Bert's struck for advancement, and for his soul.</div>
Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-53026634726223449872013-10-26T12:33:00.000-07:002020-01-16T03:39:59.925-08:00Appeasement<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Reversals plural I said, last blog, because there's also <a href="http://www.morpethherald.co.uk/news/local-news/town-set-to-trial-free-parking-1-6042725" target="_blank">this</a>. </div>
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Not enough that the town centre has been reamed out in the interests of through traffic, now car users are poised to externalise the <i>full</i> cost of their consumption of public space. No longer need they make even a token contribution in the form of a parking permit costing a fraction of the cost of provision. </div>
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£713K is the figure given for the cost to the County Council of this perverse incentivising in Morpeth alone. County wide it's millions. I'm guessing that's worked out on the basis of annual cost of provision rather than the market value of all those acres of town centre land were they freed up for purposes other than storing idle machinery. <a href="http://not-the-morpeth-herald.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/waning-enthusiasm.html" target="_blank">(see earlier blog)</a> </div>
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Call me old-fashioned and out of touch, but in times of swingeing austerity doesn't it better become a Local Authority to maximise revenue from the monetisable assets it holds? </div>
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For perspective, £713K a year would sustain <i>circa</i> ten small branch libraries. How might <a href="http://www.senrug.co.uk/" target="_blank">Senrug's</a> laudable objectives be furthered by an annual £713K? £713K invested intelligently in Morpeth's transport infrastructure year on year would effect an explosion in active and sustainable transport modal share. But none of this is of concern to Ken Brown, who we should thank for his candour in not giving a damn, if nothing else.</div>
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Still, it's an ill wind, and my disquiet may be mollified by venal personal gain. The daily commute back and forth into Morpeth must qualify me for a chunk of this personal transport subsidy. It's unthinkable – given the avowed policy commitments of Northumberland County Council and Morpeth Town Council to grow active and sustainable transport alternatives to the private car – that car user snouts will be the only ones allowed at this trough. How those of us who make our journeys other than by car will receive our hand out in lieu of free parking hasn't been announced. Having to present at the Town Hall with cycle clips or bus ticket would be a bit of a chore. In all likelihood a sub-group of the Town Council's Planning and Transport Committee is right now cross referencing DVLA database and Electoral Rolls to target car free households to which cheques will be posted for all driver age inhabitants. I promise to spend my share in Morpeth or, if you don't trust me, will cheerfully accept vouchers redeemable only in Morpeth shops.</div>
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One lesson to be taken from the recent coup in Morpeth is that you can't appease the car, any more than you can appease cancer. You can't negotiate terms with a malignant melanoma, offer it tenure there under your shirt, tapped into your blood supply and assured of free nutrients and oxygen, on condition it keeps the noise down and doesn't shorten your life. You'll wake up next morning to find it's been busy spinning like a Catherine wheel, sparking secondaries into your vital organs, into your blood and lymph and brain and bone, into your very marrow. Cut car users some slack, waive the requirement that they be preceded by a man walking with a red flag on condition they play nice, say, and you'll wake up to find one parking on your face, shouting at you to "lower your bloody cheekbones, can't you see I'm in a car here?" and demanding you subsidise him for the privilege.</div>
Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-11083154230679022372013-10-12T09:47:00.000-07:002020-01-16T03:44:01.095-08:00Full of passionate intensity.<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
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Grim news from the Morpeth salient of
The War Against The Motorist. Reversals on all fronts. <a href="http://www.morpethherald.co.uk/webimage/1.6112139.1380798161!/image/4092491115.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_595/4092491115.jpg" target="_blank">Here</a> the
political wing of the livid rump (and if "livid rump" puts you in mind
of a baboon's arse that can't be helped) of car users that are
'Lights Out!' celebrate victory in the Skirmish of the Traffic
Lights. Whether squatting to scent mark his
territory with some pungent driver scat, or simply crumpling to the ground as his driver's paunch gets the better of his enfeebled driver's legs ("Hurry up and take the bloody photo, then lift me back into my car!"), someone should relieve that guy of the Champagne while he does it.</div>
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Would you buy a failed town centre
transport infrastructure from these people? Tough, you just did, at
eye-watering cost.</div>
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Phil Jones, the consultant brought in
to conduct the “review”, has been a disappointment. Here's Phil
sharing a breakfast TV sofa with Chris Boardman and sounding as
credibly progressive about active-travel enabling infrastructure as
one could wish:</div>
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Here Phil's brief – I have it from a
trusted source – was to deliver a recommendation that the lights be
removed, and to deliver it <i>after</i> the local elections. A
charade or holding exercise, designed to limit damage to the
electoral hopes of sitting County Councillors. The same source says
Phil's been on £750 per day plus expenses to go through the motions
- for what's it been; a year? - until called upon to
announce the pre-determined recommendation. Whatever happened to
reducing traffic speed and volumes, Phil?
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You know, if told what to say and when
to say it I dare say you or I could've done that job for a fraction of the fee.</div>
Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-46375103944283454302013-09-22T11:07:00.000-07:002020-01-16T03:55:59.571-08:00Bert seizes power<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
We first met Bert in post 4, October
last year, lamenting parking charges and traffic lights. Bert, and
“Cars First!” co-religionist Lion Costume Man, have been elected
to the Town Council. Despite the Morpeth Herald straining every sinew
to get them there, Bert and Clarence polled fewer votes than the
brace of Green candidates standing in the same ward. That there exist
Greens in Morpeth will come as a shock to readers of the Herald,
which may want to re-calibrate it's editorial position more
accurately to reflect the concerns of the local populace. Actually,
that's just me being snotty: it won't want to.</div>
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Bert works, or used to work – he may
have retired recently – for FIAT as, if I remember it
correctly, Technical Product Adviser. When asked what a Technical
Product Adviser did he explained his role was helping people to an appreciation of
what's great about FIAT cars. Marketing, then. Or Sales. Bert is car
industry man.</div>
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So make a conversational overture with
Bert on the subject of child safety on our streets, and Bert will
likely enthuse about the integral child-seat anchor points and
passenger airbags in the new FIAT Medea.</div>
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Try to move him onto the general health
and well-being implications of diverse modes of personal transport
and Bert will reference the two stage ventilation filters and
hypo-allergenic bamboo fibre upholstery in the FIAT Herod.</div>
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Engage him on the subject of
anthropogenic climate change and he'll open with the industry leading
sensor controlled air-con and humidifier systems fitted as standard to ensure comfortable
climate stabilty at all times for occupants of
the FIAT Nero.</div>
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Quell a rising wave of
queasy despair long enough to seek Bert's opinion on the decline in
independent child mobility over the last forty years and Bert will
agree that it's shocking, which is why the FIAT Chronos has the
most generous rear-seat legroom in its class, such that the lankiest
of kids can wriggle a bit – within the necessary constraints of
their seat belts, naturally – on their short journeys to and from
school.</div>
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Bert doesn't get it. Will he ever get
it? Probably not, but you never know; there may be a Damascene moment
in the pipeline for him. He may be stationary on the St George's
roundabout one afternoon and, in a thunderclap of illumination, realise
that a carriageway radius the width of three cars on a single-lane town centre
mini-roundabout is an absurd mis-allocation of public space. He may be
making good speed up the Whorral Bank one day when the succession of
vehicles Prosting past him in the drag-strip lane jolt him into
questioning whether three lanes here are strictly necessary for cars,
whether the 'hammer it' lane might better be given over to creating a
cycle track to design standard, such that the narrow pavement
currently masquerading as a shared use cycling/pedestrian facility
might revert to being for the exclusive use of pedestrians. One
winter morning, nosing through town after fresh snowfall, speed
reduced and tracking carefully in the grooves carved by preceding
traffic, Bert - courtesy a frosty satori - may notice the broad skirts of pristine snow between the collective passenger side wheel rut and the pavement edge. Space that could,
were traffic always calmed by, say, an enforced 20mph limit in the
town, comfortably accommodate continuous and useful cycling
infrastructure.</div>
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But let's not hold our breath.</div>
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Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-59885047366788174642013-09-01T08:23:00.000-07:002019-08-16T06:24:09.578-07:00A marathon, not a sprint<dl><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: rgb(255 , 255 , 255); font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Perhaps
best read, if you've nothing better to do, from the bottom up. This
cycle track's only been in situ for circa 18 years, so give it time.</span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br /></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>From:</b></span><span style="color: #cc0000;">
</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">NTMH</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>To:</b></span></span></span><span style="color: #cc0000;">
</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Project
Planning Manager Sustainable Transport</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>CC:</b></span></span></span><span style="color: #cc0000;">
</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Senior
Transport Projects Engineer Sustainable Transport; Assistant
Engineer Sustainable Transport; Parking Maintenance Co-ordinator;
Northumbria Police</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>Sent:</b></span></span></span><span style="color: #cc0000;">
</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Friday
23</span></span></span><span style="color: #cc0000;"><sup><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">rd</span></span></sup></span><span style="color: #cc0000;">
</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">August
2013</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>Subject:</b></span></span></span><span style="color: #cc0000;">
</span><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Re:
Civil Parking Enforcement Query</span></span></span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Thanks Project Planning
Manager, Parking Maintenance Co-ordinator, gents, but failing to
find reference anywhere in the literature, guidelines or statutes to
"advisory cycle tracks", and confused as to how the
stretch of infrastructure we're discussing could be signed in the
way it is without having been converted from a footway into a cycle
track by authentic legal process, I asked the CTC:</span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #38761d; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;"><b><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">1)</span></b><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">To
meet the definition in </span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><span style="background: #ffffff;">DfT
Local Transport Note 1/12, September 2012: Shared Use Routes for
Pedestrians and Cyclists, “10.5 Cycle Track:</span></b></span><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">A
way constituting or comprised in a highway, being a way over which
the public have the following but no other, rights of way, that is
to say, a right of way on pedal cycles (other than pedal cycles
which are motor vehicles within the meaning of the <b>Road Traffic Act
1988</b>) with or without a right of way on foot [<b>section 329(1)
Highways Act 1980</b>]...”, and consequently to enjoy the protection
of the </span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><span style="background: #ffffff;">Road
Traffic Act 1988: “21</span></b></span><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Prohibition
of driving or parking on cycle tracks. (1) Subject to the provisions
of this section, any person who, without lawful authority, drives or
parks a [F1mechanically propelled] vehicle wholly or partly on a
cycle track is guilty of an offence...”, </span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b><span style="background: #ffffff;">MUST</span></b></span><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">a
shared use cycle track converted from a footway adjacent to a
carriageway be subject to a Traffic Regulation Order? </span></span></span><span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background: #ffffff; color: #38761d;"><b>2)</b>
What is the legal status of such a shared use facility in the
absence of a TRO?</span></span></span><span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background: #ffffff; color: #38761d;"><b>3)</b>
What distinguishes a nominal cycle track lacking TRO from a
footway/pavement?</span></span></span><span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="background: rgb(255 , 255 , 255); color: #38761d;"><b>4)</b>
Is there such a thing as an "advisory cycle track"?</span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="background: rgb(255 , 255 , 255); color: #38761d;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">to which they replied,
within half a working day</span></span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">"Thanks for your email.</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The definition of a ‘Cycle
Track’ includes at least two different legal structures:</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">a) a cycle track created under
the Cycle Tracks Act 1984 from a public footpath (that is to say, a
path with a right of way on foot only, away from the carriageway).
This process is difficult and seldom used because of technical
niceties it is probably not worth worrying about. The process is
explained in the following briefing:
<a href="http://www.ctc.org.uk/sites/default/files/file_public/bridleways-byways-cycle-tracksbrf.pdf">(http://www.ctc.org.uk/sites/default/files/file_public/bridleways-byways-cycle-tracksbrf.pdf)<br />
</a></span></span></span><span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">b) shared use footways, usually
created from existing footways (paths for pedestrians by the side of
the road) using Sections 65 and 66 of the Highways Act 1980:
<a href="https://www.ctc.org.uk/sites/default/files/file_public/public-footpathsbrf.pdf">(https://www.ctc.org.uk/sites/default/files/file_public/public-footpathsbrf.pdf)</a></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Neither of these processes uses
Traffic Regulation Orders. You are right that, whereas people may
legally park on a footway, they are not permitted to park on a cycle
track – so if residents (outside London) are unhappy with pavement
parking, they should get their pavements converted to shared use
footways – but they’ll still need the police to enforce them!</span></span></span><span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">However, TROs are required in
order to restrict traffic on highways, and are therefore necessary
to create a mandatory cycle lane, they are also necessary to make
one-way streets etc. The Government recently announced that it is
prepared to relax this requirement, which should greatly reduce the
cost of developing better infrastructure for cyclists.</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">I’m not sure what you mean by a
“nominal” cycle track; a shared use footway (the things that
plague the country) has normally been converted using the s65/66
process described above. If it has the blue signs to diagrams 956 or
957
(<a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/3113/images/uksi_20023113_en_102">http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/3113/images/uksi_20023113_en_102</a>)
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>[it does, both
varieties]</i></span></span><span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> then
it will have been converted or created using those processes.</span></span></span><span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">There is no such thing as an
“advisory cycle track” in the way that you can have an advisory
cycle lane on the carriageway. You could, I suppose have a
permissive bridleway across private land, but if it is a highway
(ie, carriageway, adjacent footway, or right-of-way away from the
carriageway) then the rules are clear.</span></span><span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">CTC has in the past pushed for
greater simplicity for the process of creating cycle tracks, though
we also want to make sure that footways converted under the Highways
Act are created up to a proper standard of design, with widths,
surface quality, sightlines, curve radii and crossings suitable for
cyclists to use – these are very different from the requirements
of pedestrians."</span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">I was also pointed to this from the same </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>DfT
Local Transport Note 1/12, September 2012, Shared Use Routes for
Pedestrians and Cyclists: "10.24</b></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> Public
consultation is not a mandatory requirement. By virtue of the </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>Road
Traffic Act 1988</b></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">, it is generally an offence
to use a motor vehicle on a cycle track. A Traffic Regulation Order
is therefore not required to control such use..."</span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">So please may we move on to how Council and
partners Northumbria Police will ensure that right of way on it is
exclusive to pedestrians and cyclists? And please may we do this
without referring to "obstruction"? "Obstruction"
may be a relevant consideration when assessing the appropriation by
car users of footways/pavements, but here the offence is driving or
parking a motorised vehicle, wholly or partly, on a cycle track.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Unless.. the Council never went though the process of
s66/65 of the Highways Act to remove the footway and replace it
(technically, not literally) with a cycle track, which would be
shocking - placing cyclists in legal jeopardy by erecting signs and
road markings to indicate use when no such use has legally been
given.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Thanks</span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">NTMH</span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: left;"></dd></dl>
<dl><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yiv8235818507yui_3_7_2_41_1377200086831_619"></a><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Fro<span style="font-size: x-small;">m:</span></b><span style="font-size: x-small;">
Parking Maintenance Co-ordinator</span></span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_1959"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_1960"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="hdr-cc1"></a>
<b>To:</b> NTMH</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Cc:</b> Project Planning Manager Sustainable Transport;
Senior Transport Projects Engineer Sustainable Transport; Assistant Engineer Sustainable
Transport</span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, 21 August 2013, 11:59</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Subject:</b> FW:
Civil Parking Enforcement query</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hi NTMH,</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="hdr-cc2"></a>I have spoken to Project Planning Manager
Sustainable Transport and he has informed me that what I stated
below is correct.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thanks</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Parking Maintenance Co-ordinator</span></span></dd><dd lang="en-US" style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br /></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_1963"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_1964"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_1968"></a>
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><span lang="en-US">From:</span></b> Assistant Engineer Sustainable
Transport<span lang="en-US"><br /><b>Sent:</b> 15 August 2013 11:29<br /><b>To:</b>
Parking Maintenance Co-ordinator<br /><b>Cc:</b> Senior Transport Projects
Engineer Sustainable Transport<br /><b>Subject:</b> RE: Civil Parking
Enforcement query</span></span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Parking Maintenance Co-ordinator,</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="hdr-cc3"></a>I think what you have written is correct but I
suggest you ask Project Planning Manager Sustainable Transport just
to check that it is ok.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Assistant Engineer Sustainable Transport.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><br /></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><span lang="en-US">From:</span></b> Parking Maintenance
Co-ordinator<span lang="en-US"><br /><b>Sent:</b> 15 August 2013 11:21<br /><b>To:</b>
Senior Transport Projects Engineer Sustainable Transport; Assistant
Engineer Sustainable Transport<br /><b>Cc:</b> NTMH</span></span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span lang="en-US"><b>Subject:</b> FW: Civil
Parking Enforcement query</span></span></span> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Please see correspondences below.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It I my understanding that as the cycle track in question is an
advisory cycle track as it has no TRO on it. Regardless of what the
DFT state as a cycle track, it cannot be classed or enforced as a
cycle track without a TRO. This therefor is not a Cycle track
defined by the DfT definition. As stated before As there is no TRO
on the area in question any enforcement should be carried out by the
police for obstruction.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am unaware of any cycle track within the county that do have a TRO
on them.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Can you confirm?</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thanks</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Parking Maintenance Co-ordinator</span></span></dd><dd lang="en-US" style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br /></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yiv8235818507yui_3_7_2_37_1377208359726_830"></a><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><span lang="en-US">From:</span></b>
NTMH<span lang="en-US"><br /><b>Sent:</b> 14 August 2013 23:40<br /><b>To:</b> Parking
Maintenance Co-ordinator<br /><b>Subject:</b> Re: Civil Parking Enforcement
query</span></span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: left;"><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Parking Maintenance Co-ordinator</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yiv8235818507yui_3_7_2_37_1377208359726_825"></a>thanks for
getting back to me, but I don't see an answer or answers to my query
of 11th July. You've re-stated Parking Services response, March 5th,
to my initial contact of March 2nd: "no TRO, not our
responsibility, take it to the police". I heard that the first
time.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_1976"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_1977"></a>
But 11th July, below, I inquired into the status of this sliver of
infrastructure. Is it a Cycle Track as defined by the given DfT
definition, a space where there is no right of way for motorised
vehicles, a prohibition enshrined in the <b>Road Traffic Act 1988</b>: "any
person who, without lawful authority, drives or parks a
[mechanically propelled] vehicle wholly or partly on a cycle track
is guilty of an offence."? Or was it merely signed as such
without the proper procedure being followed? Is it a kosher Cycle
Track?</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And are there any other shavings of public space in Morpeth that
meet the legal definition of a Cycle Track?</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If this is more Highways Design's area, please forward me on,
copying me in so I know where it's gone.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thanks again</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">NTMH</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br /></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>From:</b> Parking Maintenance Co-ordinator</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>To:</b> NTMH </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Sent:</b>
Tuesday, 13 August 2013, 10:14</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Subject:</b> RE: Civil Parking
Enforcement query</span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hi NTMH,</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My apologies for not getting back to you. I did not here from back
from the other department before I went on Holiday.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I have now spoken to them and I have been informed that there is no
Traffic Regulation Order on the road or on the cycle track to enable
us to enforce on that section of highway. The cycle track would need
a TRO on it to allow the CEO’s to enforce the area. As this is the
case it would fall to the police to enforce the path for
obstruction.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you need any further information please do not hesitate to
contact me.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thanks</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Parking Maintenance Co-ordinator</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br /></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><span lang="en-US">From:</span></b> NTMH<span lang="en-US"><br /><b>Sent:</b> 12
August 2013 23:06<br /><b>To:</b> Parking Maintenance Co-ordinator<br /><b>Subject:</b>
Re: Civil Parking Enforcement query</span></span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hello Parking Maintenance Co-ordinator,</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">not wishing to appear impatient, are we any nearer clarification?</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Just so's you know, I don't stake out the allotments obsessively
taking telephoto pictures from a camouflaged hide. These are camera
phone snaps taken, when I can be bothered, on my commute in and out
of town. It would be helpful to know whether I'm seeing routine,
un-addressed infractions of road traffic law, or whether this margin
of highway has been wrongly signed.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thanks</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">NTMH</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br /></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>From:</b> Parking Maintenance Co-ordinator</span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>To:</b> NTMH </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Sent:</b> Friday, 26 July 2013, 11:38</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Subject:</b> RE: Civil
Parking Enforcement query</span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Hi NTMH</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Thanks for your comment. I am awaiting a response from another
department on the matter and I will get back to you on Monday.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Thanks</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Parking Maintenance Co-ordinator</span></span></dd><dd lang="en-US" style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br /></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><span lang="en-US">From:</span></b> NTMH<span lang="en-US"> <br /><b>Sent:</b> 25
July 2013 13:49<br /><b>To:</b> Parking Services CRM<br /><b>Subject:</b> Fw: Civil
Parking Enforcement query</span></span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hi,</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">a fortnight is probably outwith your response time target for an
enquiry, so I'd very much appreciate a reply, even if only to say
you don't know and have forwarded me to X in department Y, who will
be better placed to deal with it..</span></span><br />
<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Cdv9MAVgn98/UiNKMZCxlbI/AAAAAAAAACw/zmyryvufiFo/s1600/signage+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Cdv9MAVgn98/UiNKMZCxlbI/AAAAAAAAACw/zmyryvufiFo/s320/signage+001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
</dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thanks</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">NTMH</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br /></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>From:</b> NTMH</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>To:</b> Parking Services
</span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, 11 July 2013, 13:37</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b>Subject:</b> Re: Civil Parking
Enforcement query</span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br /></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_2162"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_2163"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_2164"></a>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hello again Parking Services,</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">perhaps while we wait for the
Highways Design team to mull over its priorities and options you
could clarify a couple of things for me?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First, does the
<b>Department for Transport's Local Transport Note 1/12, September
2012, Shared Use Routes for Pedestrians and Cyclists, section 10
Legal Issues, subsection 5:</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>10.5 Cycle Track:</b> A way
constituting or comprised in a highway, being a way over which the
public have the following but no other, rights of way, that is to
say, a right of way on pedal cycles (other than pedal cycles
which are motor vehicles within the meaning of the <b>Road Traffic
Act 1988</b>) with or without a right of way on foot [<b>section 329(1) Highways Act 1980</b>]. The words in round brackets were inserted by
section 1 of the <b>Cycle Tracks Act 1984</b>. Cycle tracks might be
created through conversion of a footway or footpath, or by
constructing a new highway. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">accurately describe or define
the Whorral Bank cycle/pedestrian facility? </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Is this what it is, thus
protected by the <b>Road Traffic Act 1988: </b></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>"21 Prohibition of driving or parking on cycle tracks.</b></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">(1)Subject to the provisions of this section, any person who,
without lawful authority, drives or parks a [F1mechanically
propelled] vehicle wholly or partly on a cycle track is guilty of an
offence."</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_2007"></a><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">or is it an access
road and car parking sited to convenience Tommy's Field
allotmenters, as in the attached photos?</span></span><br />
<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hMMyjV9Sln8/UiNFH4KbV7I/AAAAAAAAABw/lQpAGc_bSW0/s1600/encore+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hMMyjV9Sln8/UiNFH4KbV7I/AAAAAAAAABw/lQpAGc_bSW0/s320/encore+001.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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</dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Second,
putting the question of the status of the Whorral Bank facility to
one side, is there any other infrastructure anywhere in Morpeth that
meets the above DfT definition of a Cycle Track?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thanks</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">NTMH</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br /></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>From:</b> Parking Services </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>To:</b> NTMH </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, 5 March 2013,
10:00</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Subject:</b> FW: Civil Parking Enforcement query</span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dear NTMH
</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thank you for your email below with regards to parking on the
designated cycling/pedestrian footpath.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Unfortunately, you are correct in your assumption that this cannot
be enforced by our Civil Enforcement Officers because no traffic
regulation order is in place on that road ie) single/double yellow
lines. However, I will forward your email to our Highways Design
team to make them aware of your issues as they are responsible for
where single/double yellow lines are placed.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Kind Regards</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Parking Services</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sustainable Transport</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><b><span lang="en-US">From:</span></b> NTMH<span lang="en-US"> <br /><b>Sent:</b> 02
March 2013 19:26<br /><b>To:</b> Council Helpline Portal<br /><b>Subject:</b> Civil
Parking Enforcement query</span></span></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hi,</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_2024"></a>cycling home yesterday
evening on the Whorral Bank cycle path, where it passes the Tommy's
Field allotments opposite the new NHS development, I encountered a
'Police Warning' sign on the allotments fence. Fantastic, was my
first thought: finally the police are acting to curb the persistent
illegal driving/parking on this designated cycling/pedestrian
facility by motorised allotmenters too lazy to use the plentiful
legal parking close by. But the sign was actually a warning to
illegally parked motorists to secure their valuables and lock their
car. Is this really an official 'Police Warning' sign?</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A while back I lobbied Northumbria Police to sanction the illegal
driving/parking of Tommy's Field allotmenters. Some 'advice' was
issued to the offenders. As one allotmenter told it, the police had
advised that provided they parked higher up the grass verge, with no
wheels on the surfaced path itself, all was fine. My sense was that
the Police didn't really want to get involved, responsibility for
parking law enforcement would soon be passing to the Council.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I've spoken to Council Parking Enforcement Officers who say that the
absence of double yellow lines on the carriageway means it's not
their responsibility.</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_2031"></a>So I'm sending this to
both Council and Police in the hope that I won't be batted back and
forth by two agencies not wanting the responsibility – if lines of
responsibility aren't clear perhaps you could communicate with each
other to get it straight? - because the <b>Road Traffic Act 1988</b> seems
crystal clear:</span></span><br />
<br /></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_2079"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_2080"></a>
<b>21 Prohibition of driving or parking on cycle tracks.</b></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_2073"></a>(1)Subject to the
provisions of this section, any person who, without lawful
authority, drives or parks a [F1mechanically propelled] vehicle
wholly or partly on a cycle track is guilty of an offence.</span></span><br />
<br /></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1378033120154_2037"></a>What must cyclists and
pedestrians do to prevent the illegal appropration of their scant
legally designated spaces by scofflaw motorists?</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thanks</span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></dd><dd style="margin-left: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">NTMH</span></span></dd></dl>
Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-59028469247169541742013-06-24T06:27:00.000-07:002020-07-03T06:56:21.620-07:00Stop! Police!!<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Almost - there's more scope for poetic licence here - an e-mail to the local police. Been prodding them about this, intermittently, for a couple of years.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
PC Dean</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
the Whorral Bank cycle track is a
flawed piece of infrastructure. It fails against design standards in
ways I shan't bore you by enumerating. Suffice to say that any Dutch
or Danish transport engineer proposing it in its current form would
be laughed back to the drawing board. Or sacked. Only two things in
its favour: it's a rare, if not the sole, legally designated/protected stretch of
cycling infrastructure in Morpeth, and – though this is doubtless
more by accident than design – it doesn't bring cyclists into
proximity to parked cars, doesn't funnel them within range of car
doors being opened in their path. All cycle training urges cyclists
to steer clear of this 'door zone', as its known. Being 'doored' is perhaps second only to
the left turning lorry as cause of death and injury to cyclists.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
So it's a disappointment that illegal
encroachment on this space by Tommy's Field allotmenters, creating a
door zone hazard for passing cyclists, persists. With the onset of
good weather, this offending is pretty much a daily occurrence. I
attach some recent photos.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img id="yui_3_7_3_3_1371990628792_463" src="https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6109/6255645296_9db7ca75db_m.jpg" /> <img alt="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7442/9114079297_1bef75afd0_m.jpg" class="decoded" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7442/9114079297_1bef75afd0_m.jpg" /> <img id="yui_3_7_3_3_1371989930210_457" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7387/9114076075_473145afd5_m.jpg" /> <img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7417/9116311942_3493dcf593_m.jpg" /></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
The affable bloke who features in one of
them, who looks like he might have been grown on an allotment
himself, said police had authorised his driving on the cycle track
provided he came to rest high enough on the verge to keep all wheels
off the tarmac. I've heard this same defence from allotmenters
before, but the Road Traffic Act 1988, Section 21, is unequivocal:
<b>driving</b> <b>and/or</b> parking a motorised vehicle on a cycle track is an
offence.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
I get that this is low priority stuff.
But against the 'triviality' of the offence we might weigh the
'triviality' of the policing needed to resolve it. It isn't covert or
complicated. This isn't terrorism, insider dealing or peaceful and law-abiding environmental protest. No officer need
spend years in deep cover posing as an allotment holder; feigning
interest in crop rotation, double digging, mulch and brassica varieties; fathering
children by unsuspecting female allotmenters; all the while feeding
registration numbers to his handler over furtive meetings in The Joiners. No
oily private detective need provide transcripts of allotmenters'
hacked mobile phone conversations. It doesn't need an armed response
unit to shoot out the tyres of the offending vehicles before dragging
the perps, screaming, out across their bonnets through shattered
windscreens (though if you are minded to go the Bodie and Doyle route please give me a
heads up so I can cycle along to watch). In fact it's hard to
envisage an easier collar.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Passionate about
active and sustainable personal transport alternatives to the car in
the places where we live, I fail to see how as a society we might
progress from this ludicrous irrationality<br />
<br />
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<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/aq_ce0D9eMQ/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/aq_ce0D9eMQ&source=uds"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/aq_ce0D9eMQ&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></div>
<br />
to this
sane alternative<br />
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<br />
while we tolerate this routine abuse and misappropriation by scofflaw car users of the scant few facilities that <i>do</i><span style="font-style: normal;">
currently exist for cycling </span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<img height="200" id="yui_3_7_3_3_1371993223431_458" src="https://farm7.staticflickr.com/6134/6203028365_588d4009dc_n.jpg" width="160" /> <img height="200" id="yui_3_7_3_3_1371993295798_461" src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8443/7909443618_719c170231_n.jpg" width="150" /> </div>
<br />
<span style="font-style: normal;"> Yours ever...</span><span style="font-style: normal;"></span></div>
Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-31095302023074842892013-04-09T09:15:00.000-07:002019-08-16T06:23:47.615-07:00A regular column beckons.<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"></span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">So then they published this precis of an earlier blog.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;">Sir,</span></span></div>
<div dir="LTR" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2858">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">were every car driven
in Morpeth there to haul away purchases in quantities that could
<i>only</i> be hauled away by car, all the shops in town would be
sold out by noon every day. Morpeth retailers grown rich-as-Croesus
on this daily tsunami of trade would be retiring to their yachts in
the Bahamas in droves.</span></span></span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"></span></span><br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">This
isn't happening because not all car use blesses the town. Much of it
is commuter traffic, personal transport journeys, 80% or so single
occupant, one individual taking him/herself to work, parking up all
day, then home without pausing to spread cash around. This car use
brings congestion, noise, stench and hazard; devours space, overloads
limited parking, hoovers up subsidy and costs the town. Better for
Morpeth that these journeys be made differently.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">The
Herald's front page from Oct 18<sup>th</sup>, on your website, is
illustrative. A Morpeth businesswoman scapegoats the usual patsies
for the stressful misery of her car commute. That she lives – the
electoral roll suggests – 1.3 miles from her place of work isn't
disclosed. That's a 20 to 25 minute walk or a 5 to 10 minute cycle
ride. Buses pass the end of her street, all stop at the bus station
which is closer to her place of work than any legal parking. Her
using a car for this journey, the stressful miserable option, can
most kindly be described as 'irrational'.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><br />What
proportion of those who currently commute by single-occupant car to
work in central Morpeth, from addresses in Morpeth, over readily
walkable/cycleable distances or along routes well served by public
transport, would need to leave the car at home and instead travel
rationally for Morpeth to be cured at a stroke – starting tomorrow
morning if you want it badly enough - of the congestion and parking
problems that so agitate the car-user lobby? </span></span></span>
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div dir="LTR" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2867" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div dir="LTR" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2871">
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2870"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2869"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2868"></a>
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">The heat and noise
generated by the Morpeth car-user lobby obscure a simple truth that
no politician dare whisper, let alone shout through a loud hailer in
the market square. Car users are responsible for Morpeth's traffic
problems.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"> </span></span><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">This may be painful to
digest on first hearing, so to sweeten the pill here's a fun online
clip:</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div dir="LTR" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2872" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div dir="LTR" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2876">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://img.youtube.com/vi/aq_ce0D9eMQ/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/aq_ce0D9eMQ&source=uds"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="https://youtube.googleapis.com/v/aq_ce0D9eMQ&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2875"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2874"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2873"></a> <span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">best watched on a
mobile device while congesting a stretch of road. </span></span></span>
</div>
</div>
<div dir="LTR" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2877" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;">Sincerely</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">And they only edited out </span></span></span><span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">the </span></span></span>youtube link stuff and the contentious info that Josie's commute is 1.3 miles or a 20 to 25 minute walk.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">And the following week there were remarkably few letters spectacularly missing the point by asserting the need to drive of double amputees living 40 miles out in the sticks in isolated </span></span></span><span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">small-holdings.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-11067294770783456392013-03-07T13:45:00.000-08:002019-01-23T07:11:01.739-08:00Waning enthusiasm<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">A few reasons why I haven't been
blogging lately.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Firstly, a letter to the Morpeth
Herald got published, which rather took the righteous wind from my
indignant sails; the <i>raison d'etre</i> of this blog being that the Herald
is a supine mouthpiece for vested car-centrism, censoring alternative
views in pursuit of a fawning, car-favouring agenda. Letter's here:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;">Sir,<br />with
calls for 'free' parking a regular feature of your front page it
might be even-handed of you to remind your readership that it costs
to provide car parking. </span>
</div>
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;">
</span>
<br />
<div dir="LTR" id="Section1">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;">How
much it costs is moot. The Department for Transport in their
“<a href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20101124142120/http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable/travelplans/work/essentialguide.pdf" target="_blank">Essential Guide to Travel Planning</a>” page 17, estimates the national
average annual cost to the provider of a single car parking space to
be around £400: “A study of 21 organisations with travel plans
showed that their average annual spend on maintaining each space was
£400”.</span></div>
</div>
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;">
</span>
<br />
<div dir="LTR" id="Section2">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2146"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2147"></a>
A Northumberland specific figure
is more elusive. The total cost to the Council of providing free
parking to car commuting staff county wide, divided by the number of
spaces this gift comprises, would give us a reasonable yardstick.
But the Council doesn't keep count. Even in times of eviscerating
austerity this perk goes unaudited. </span>
</div>
</div>
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;">North
Tyneside General Hospital does keep count. Actual and projected costs
of providing their circa 1100 space car park for the five years
2004-9 give the average annual cost for a single space of £505.</span></div>
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;">
</span>
<br />
<div dir="LTR" id="Section3">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;">Accepting
£400 as a working figure, the Council's parking permit - access to
all municipal car parks county wide, valid for a year, cost £110
(£82.50 concessionary) or £2.12 (£1.59) per week - represents an
annual subsidy to the private motorist end-user of car parking in
Morpeth of £290. Not enough?</span></div>
</div>
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;">
</span>
<br />
<div dir="LTR" id="Section4">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2214"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2215"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2216"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2217"></a>
Alternatively, we might take the
cost of renting a wedge of central Morpeth hard standing for
purposes other than storing heavy machinery, as our marker. The
space required to park a single car would cost you circa £7,500 a
year if instead you wanted to stand a market stall on it. You can
park a car in central Morpeth for 68 years for what the same space
would cost a stall holder for a year. The heart of even the most
kvetching motorist must be warmed by being able to rent £7.5K worth
of resource for £110.</span></div>
</div>
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;">
</span>
<br />
<div dir="LTR" id="Section5">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2219"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2220"></a>
Calls for 'free' parking are
disingenuous. What's being demanded is that private motoring receive
public subsidy, that non car users (which includes conscientious car
owners who leave the car at home for journeys that allow active and
sustainable alternatives) subsidise the habitual motorist, either
through their Council Tax, through increased business rates
manifesting as higher prices at the tills, or through cuts in public
services. </span>
</div>
</div>
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;">
</span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2223"></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2594576093319811827" name="yui_3_7_2_1_1362690164616_2224"></a>
</span><span style="color: #c5000b; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #b45f06;">Yours</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Secondly, the week after this got an
airing on their letters page, several column inches were given to
reporting a local politician (Labour this time) raging against
parking charges as a tax on motorists. So there seems no point
contending with this sort of willed idiocy.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Finally, I'm not sure I'm very good at
this. Consider:</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #b45f06; font-size: x-small;">We must undermine
motorists’ current monopolisation of road space. We must
fundamentally challenge motorists’ sense of entitlement to that
space. We must pursue a radical programme of civilising motorised
traffic. And if/where we’re not as a society prepared to do those
things, we must build separate space for cycling.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Now I might, with
a following wind, after a good night's sleep and a few livening
micro-doses of EPO, be capable of writing something similar. But
though sincere and strongly felt it would be in some sense hollow,
would rest on emotion. For the author Dave Horton, whose excellent
<span style="color: black;"><a href="http://thinkingaboutcycling.wordpress.com/">blog</a> I urge
you to follow, it's a conclusion that follows patient research,
rigorous academic process, assiduous reflection, and is all the more
persuasive for it. </span></span>
</div>
Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-28197981542208615382012-12-08T09:16:00.000-08:002020-01-16T03:44:40.627-08:00'Give us a break' indeed.<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Strewth! </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.morpethherald.co.uk/news/local-news/give-us-a-break-plea-to-town-traffic-wardens-1-5200151" target="_blank">This</a> is <i>at least</i> the third time The Herald has provided an un-critical platform for John Beynon to carp about the event that will eventually be known to students of
local history as 'Black Sunday', or 'The Bridge Street Slaughter of
the Flower Basket Innocents', in its pages: ostensibly to demonstrate
the officious un-reason of Parking Enforcement Officers.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This time we get a bit of long overdue
detail. Seems the users of some illegally parked vehicles were asked to move their illegally parked
vehicles. Seems it was pointed out to the motorised vehicle users that
there were legitimate and free parking spaces available ten yards away from
where they had chosen to park illegally, and the suggestion made they
move their vehicles into those. No tickets were issued. Hardly the stuff of nightmares. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Six months on from that fateful summer morning, the Morpeth Herald grinds its axe.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Not so much flogging a dead horse as
flogging no horse.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Post-traumatic-stress counselling for
John Beynon, and a change of editorial direction at the Herald might
give us all a much deserved break.</span></div>
Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-37090578814656137712012-11-04T08:36:00.001-08:002020-01-16T03:45:40.579-08:00A town in denial<span id="goog_1086283787"></span><span id="goog_1086283788"></span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This triptych of the town centre by a
Morpeth schoolgirl hangs on a wall at the rear of the Sanderson
Arcade. It's bold and inventive, but there's something missing from this familiar
scene.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P3mbrRF0MX0/UJaXQ7QSezI/AAAAAAAAAAo/wTzvjjYfC-4/s1600/003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P3mbrRF0MX0/UJaXQ7QSezI/AAAAAAAAAAo/wTzvjjYfC-4/s400/003.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This picture of Morpeth market, one of
a bucolic series recently hung in the pedestrian walkway through to
Newgate Street, shows a predominantly traffic-free town centre. Looks
bloody lovely, let's go there.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OiSUyMiPbEk/UJaXoFUDs2I/AAAAAAAAAAw/y0EGkt1LWAs/s1600/005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OiSUyMiPbEk/UJaXoFUDs2I/AAAAAAAAAAw/y0EGkt1LWAs/s400/005.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This relief metalwork frieze in the bus
station broadcasts Morpeth's charms. Apologies for the quality of
photo. Aquatic fowl and mature trees live here among warm old stone buildings. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6tYM7oeDGJI/UJaYBaNWAbI/AAAAAAAAAA4/Dp5I7q9-R3c/s1600/006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6tYM7oeDGJI/UJaYBaNWAbI/AAAAAAAAAA4/Dp5I7q9-R3c/s400/006.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
It's a challenge to find a photo of the town in <a href="http://demo.gmdt.net/inside-morpeth.html">Inside
Morpeth Magazine</a> that hasn't been timed, cropped or angled to airbrush out
motorised traffic.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
This promotional video,<br />
<br />
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from the official Northumberland visitor website is an absolute hoot. Chortle, 14 seconds in, at the
obstructed view and curious camera angle chosen to film Bridge Street: aimed
coyly up at roofs and upper floors rather than the street level motorised
clusterfuck. Note that filming from a crouch on the river bed will obscure traffic on Telford bridge.<br />
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Here's the un-varnished reality. That bloke's been stuck there trying to cross the road since being sent out for some milk by his mum thirty years ago. The milk's off.</div>
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Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-20228033691272850722012-10-21T11:07:00.000-07:002020-07-31T14:40:46.956-07:00The quest for commuting bliss<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">It's hard to keep up with the volume of car-user friendly puff generated by the Morpeth Herald. I'm getting
behind. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">There was a letter from Cllr Towns - a
response I think to the suggestion that the 'Lights Out!' agitators
were perhaps being a tad silly – in which he treated us to anecdote
about a couple of prangs at the lights. Anecdotes which might be
persuasive were they balanced against data for the incidence of
prangs, scrapes, near misses, altercations, shootings of the
pedestrian crossing on red by northbound traffic barrelling round at
speed, for a similar period prior to the installation of the 'new'
lights. Without this comparison data his anecdotes are worthless.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This week we've a real peach of a front
page 'report' which stands as shabby exemplar, an essential distillation (which I promise will be the last aromatherapy pun) of the car-besotted bilge
the Morpeth Herald specialises in. You can read it <a href="http://www.morpethherald.co.uk/news/business/businesses-news/parking-tickets-drove-me-away-1-5038309">here</a>
.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">What the Herald studiously doesn't report is that
the complaining, car-dependent aromatherapist lives - a trawl through
the electoral rolls suggests - in Morpeth, near County Hall, at a
distance of circa 1.3 miles from her place of work. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Josie says that the days when she's
able to find an all-day space for her car in the town centre “are bliss”, she “can relax”.
Let's quickly run through Josie's personal transport options for a commute journey of 1.3 miles,
alternatives to grinding her four wheeled fossil fuel diffuser (I lied about the puns) into town every day, that she might
always and forever enjoy the relaxed bliss of not having to fret
about her motor car's whereabouts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">We've the few dozen 'Lights Out!'
protest marchers themselves to thank for demonstrating recently that a 1.7 mile <b>walk</b> up to County Hall from the town centre is readily do-able
for anyone averagely able-bodied, even those toting kids to window
dress some protest banners. The walk from Josie's home to the town is
shorter. Does an overall 20 to 25 minutes
each way sound reasonable? How this compares with the time it takes
to drive in through peak time central Morpeth, drive around a while
to find a parking space, walk from parking space to clinic, pop back
several times during the day to move car if unable to find a
blissful, relaxing all day space, walk back to car and grind home
through peak time central Morpeth at end of day, is unclear. I doubt
there's much in it, and were you to add the time it takes Josie to
earn the money to pay for her car commuting - fuel, parking, parking
fines and a chunk of her fixed car-ownership costs (initial purchase,
MOT, VED, depreciation) proportionate to her commuting mileage - walking will be the quicker
option. See <a href="http://ranprieur.com/readings/illichcars.html" target="_blank">Ivan Illich</a> on the subject.</span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Or Josie could <b>cycle</b>. Downhill of a
morning she'd barely need to turn a pedal, could roll into work in a
comfortable 5 minutes with negligible exertion. Getting back up the
gradient would require more effort, would maybe reduce her speed - until she's found her cycling legs - to
an average 6-7mph and extend her journey time to something over 10,
but short of 15, minutes. I will concede that the return leg stretch
up Castle Bank can be unpleasant for an un-confident, novice cyclist: getting
over into the right hand lane approaching the mini roundabout, to
take position to go up towards County Hall, can be unnerving because of the
volume and speed of people like Josie using cars to get home. To begin with it may be best to hop off shy of the roundabout, walk across, and re-mount the other side. Under 20 minute
round trip doesn't sound bad for a commute though, does it? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: small;">In addition to the bliss of not having
to worry about parking, walking or cycling would save Josie money,
improve her fitness and health, likely see her lose weight, free up a parking space for someone who might have genuine need of it and - if
anyone cares – de-carbonise her commuting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It used to be six but might now 'only'
be five peak time <b>buses</b> an hour that pass the end of Josie's street
down the A197 into the town of a morning. Josie's place of work is
right by the bus station and the bus station closer to her clinic than any legal parking space. Little to add, really, except that a folding bike would
enable Josie to mix and match her commute patterns according to her
energy levels. She could coast into town on her bike of a morning,
giving a cheery wave to all the single-occupant car users seething
about 'traffic' in long tailbacks of broiling-tin idiocy, then decide to get
herself and bike back up the hill of an evening on the bus, if
feeling a bit sluggish after a day spent stacking 100gallon drums of
essential oils in the stockroom.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">“Morpeth is so lovely, but the
council is making it a misery with the parking problems,” Josie is
quoted as saying in the offending front page splash. Not even close; ill-considered personal transport choices cause the car-shafted misery of Morpeth Town. Josie is ideally placed to choose to be neither perpetrator nor victim of the traffic
congestion and parking over-subscription that bedevil Morpeth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I'm not sure what your going rate for
an aromatherapy session is Josie, but this Personal Transport
consultation is my gift to you.</span></div>
Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-76420845184057721832012-10-11T05:50:00.000-07:002020-01-16T03:53:57.706-08:00Car Parking #1<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Car parking then. Bert's an
acquaintance: congenial affable chap. Fixed my best-beloved kitchen
utensil – a rice cooker – for me and would take nothing for his
time and trouble. Whenever I have rice, warm thoughts of Bert mingle
with the scent of fluffy beads of perfectly cooked long-grain. More
than an acquaintance perhaps, but not quite a mate: we've yet to
compare warts after a skinful.<i> (Scars, surely? Ed.)</i></div>
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Bert's with Morpeth's 'Lights Out!'
movement, something of a spokesman, photographed and quoted in the
Morpeth Herald. I think Bert's misguided, if well-intentioned, and
that there may be causes more deserving of his energy and abilities.
We discuss transport issues sometimes. Bert says that the economic
decline of Morpeth was caused by – didn't merely coincide with –
the introduction of parking charges circa 12 years ago. I suspect
we're at the nub of it here, and that this is the wound that will not
heal in the Morpeth motorist's tortured psyche: the primal unresolved
betrayal, mother's breast cruelly withdrawn, the traumatic well-spring of all
subsequent dysfunctional tantrums in opposition to beastly traffic
lights, nasty traffic wardens, horrid road traffic law....</div>
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Is it true that Morpeth's been in
economic decline for the last 12 years? I've seen no data to support
this assertion. The cars congesting the streets and pavements seem
always to be getting bigger and more bling, the mobile phones with
which some drivers distract themselves from the tiresome chore of
controlling lethal heavy machinery in shared public space are
morphing into sleek flat smart tablets. Yes, small independent
retailers are struggling, but might that have more to do with a
global recession, the rise of internet shopping and Tescofication,
the pressures identified by Mary Portas that are squeezing
traditional town centres nationwide, not just Morpeth?</div>
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Anyway Bert, says I, the Morpeth
motorist has it easy. A year's municipal parking permit, access to
all the Council's car parks county wide, can be had for £110 (£82.50
concessionary). £2.12 per week to rent circa 16 square meters of
engineered town centre hard-standing for private machinery storage,
less than the cost of provision and an annual subsidy of, roughly -
depending how you measure it, and we'll have a stab at some measuring
shortly - between £290 and £7390. Morpeth motorists should be
toasting their good fortune, humbly grateful for this largesse from
the public purse.</div>
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No, says Bert, the permit is not a
subsidy because Morpeth's car parks are always full and you can't be
sure of finding a space.</div>
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Now..... were you listening to this on
the radio rather than reading a blog you would've heard, just there,
the unmistakable scraunch of a stylus being clumsily lifted from a
vinyl record. Woah, back a bit! Let's re-cap: there are more cars
than ever before choking the streets of Morpeth (certainly since the
A1 bypass 42 years ago): there are more car parking spaces now than
at any time in Morpeth's history (Google satellite view can't keep
pace with the voracious tumour of tarmac gnawing away at the town's
innards). The more cars than ever before are filling the more car
parking spaces than ever before, Bert assures us, beyond capacity. Yet
car parking charges are crippling the town!? A startling whiff of
motorist illogic: something has to give here. To make stick the claim
that parking charges are scuttling the town you'd need, as a minimum,
to be able to point to some under-used - because over-priced - car
parking. If you can't, you need a new theory.</div>
Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-4977377561254761462012-09-30T04:45:00.000-07:002020-01-16T06:31:15.870-08:00Morpeth does pedestrianisation.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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“If you'd like to find somewhere to sit I'll
come and take your order. Will you be inside or..?”<br />
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“We'll sit outside, thanks, for the
car showroom vibe. We find nothing complements a slice of unusual
cheese and a pot of novelty tea quite like the view of a Nissan
Juke's muscled backside and shiny puckered exhaust.”</div>
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“It's a pleasure to serve such
discerning customers. We like to think that of the three eateries in
the Sanderson Arcade we offer a garage forecourt aesthetic and
ambience second only to Barluga..”</div>
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Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2594576093319811827.post-25294997984554466102012-09-23T05:55:00.000-07:002020-07-31T14:43:35.427-07:00Drivers threaten to kill wardens<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
Another week, another edition of the
Morpeth Herald. Anything this week to fan the flames of uninformed car-user resentment? Do pigs swive enmired in their own filth? </div>
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Two headline articles on the front
page, no less: traffic wardens and traffic lights. We'll return to traffic
lights another time, maybe. At some point we should take a broader look at
parking issues in Morpeth, and the car-user lobby mantra that there must
always be more and it must always be free, but not today, eh?</div>
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“<b>Parking fines earn town cash cow
label</b>” is the headline. The article leads with “Morpeth is
being disproportionately targeted for parking fines, it has been
claimed.” Note the passivised verb form concealing the identity of
the claimant. Nelson Mandela was it, or a bloke in the pub? Might the
Herald itself be the source of this whine? “The town has been
dubbed a 'cash cow'” by similar source unidentified: Carlos Tevez, Jim Bowen? OK, so eventually, 12
paragraphs after presenting this sound-bite as disinterested and
authoritative, we learn that our cash cow labeller is someone called
Peter Jackson. “<i><b>The</b></i> Peter Jackson?!” I hear you
gasp, “whose ground-breaking doctoral thesis on the uses and abuses
of public space has revolutionised thinking around personal transport?”
No, sadly, not him.<br />
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The gist of this bleat is that since
the introduction of Parking Enforcement Officers in Northumberland,
some Morpethians have been done for illegal parking. Not as many as
in Berwick or Hexham sure, but more than in some other towns. Proof,
if proof were needed, that Morpeth car users are unfairly victimised,
bearing the brunt of the war against the motorist, a Rorke's Drift to
the Council's Zulu hordes.... You can probably fill in the rest.</div>
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Curious, I took a mid-day walk into
central Morpeth to discern the extent to which plucky car users have been
ground beneath the jackbooted heel of the Council's “over-zealous”
hit squads, into reluctant compliance with oppressive road traffic
law. Not at all, is the answer. On a short stroll up Bridge Street
and halfway up Newgate Street I witnessed circa twenty driving
offences that would earn the car users a fine and/or points on their
licence, were enforcement not so...<i> under</i>-zealous. Cars parked in
loading bays though conspicuously not loading; cars parked in
disabled spaces without displaying requisite badge; cars driven and
parked on pavements; cars parked on double yellow lines; cars parked
across dropped kerbs; car users on handheld 'phones; a car user texting
while car using. A royal flush of car user<i><span style="font-style: normal;"> violations</span></i> observed in a few minutes within 150yds of
central Morpeth street scene. Plainly, the incidence of parking fines and prosecutions for dangerous driving falls way short of the
incidence of parking and driving offences committed by plucky,
hard-done-by Morpeth car users.
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Brazen dock-side trollops offering up
their tight, aching dugs to the punter's horny handed caress, these
brassy motor-strumpets must <i>want</i> to be milked. Why the Morpeth Herald
should take such a prurient interest in this voluntary commerce
between consenting adults is unclear.. </div>
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Except it isn't always
consensual.</div>
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If you can make it through the first 18
paragraphs of motorist exculpating froth in this front page report
you encounter in paragraph 19 what should have shaped their headline,
and has shaped mine: “abuse of officers by the public has been much
worse than expected, with extreme uses of bad language and personal
insult experienced regularly, and even death threats being made”.
Were you familiar with the Morpeth Herald's output over the years,
persistently kindling and fuelling and fanning the flames of car user
resentment with slanted car-centric ooze, perpetuating the myth of private car user hegemony over urban public space as right and necessity, you'd wonder at
their reluctance now to claim at least some of the credit for the thuggery encountered by council officers.
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Won't the editorial team take a bow?</div>
Not The Morpeth Heraldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16819274298650654071noreply@blogger.com0