Huddersfield Daily Examiner

So what is the definition of reckless driving?

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IF I drive through a bus gate, drive in a bus lane, or drive at mind boggling speeds in excess of 36mph I would be issued a fixed penalty notice (probably by a machine).

Non-payment could result in a criminal conviction.

However, mounting the pavement and hitting three pedestrian­s resulting in life-changing injuries and the death of a 17-year-old girl is apparently not deemed to be reckless driving, and it’s not possible to prosecute.

Wow. national austerity policies, plus all the other bureaucrac­y for which our small island is now famous for, but there’s no consolatio­n to hear of frontline services being diminished while yet another multi-million, piein-the-sky proposal is unveiled.

All this is made no easier when the highest paid council employee requires assistance to do the job.

If the job is demanding, why not opt for job share, so that the reduced salary and perks can be offered to the “expert”. A not uncommon ploy in the public sector.

It’s about time fairy tale schemes and self-congratula­tory headlines stopped and were replaced with hard evidence of the council concentrat­ing on its core, day-to-day function. No more Kingsgate 2, Waterfront quarter this and that, HD1, ski villages, and all the other diversions that cost disproport­ionate amounts of our money.

Our infrastruc­ture is falling apart yet emphasis is placed on some diversiona­ry road “improvemen­ts”. Services are diminished, or lost, yet council

But consider the upset more precise writing might cause, e.g. social media addicts in class 2B aren’t trying, or half of Year 7’s parents have no interest in their children’s behaviour.

School inspectors might chastise a school’s history and music teachers for poor results – but refuse to display data on their own track record in teaching.

Teachers complain they spend a third of their week being clerks: is anyone listening?

Who might put together such controvers­ial themes in reports which stir improvemen­t? Beyond the well-establishe­d tidy statistics, as your correspond­ent notes, real life can get KNIFE crime, our Prime Minister thinks, has no link to police force numbers being down. How wrong I think she is.

The police need to go into schools and warn them of the tragedies.

We know some of these stabbings are gang related. Once again the community bobbies would soon know the troublemak­ers.

Knife crime affects us all, wondering who is next on the list. Have we become so alienated that parents let their children out carrying knives and we have lost control of them?

We all have knives but most shudder at the thought of what they are capable of. No doubt most of the stabbings will not occur where MPs live. Perhaps if they did they would have done something earlier.

 ??  ?? First day of spring, by Frank Patient of Cowlersley
First day of spring, by Frank Patient of Cowlersley

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