Out of control?

We live on a fairly busy road leading into Blackburn. One of my favourite pastimes is to stand in an upstairs window to watch the traffic – particularly the cars going to work, as I am happily retired. Would anyone like to guess how many drivers I see with their mobile telephone in their hands? Yeah, lots and lots...

When I did go to work I began to take a slightly longer route than the motorway after watching a bloke having a shave at 70mph.

As I write, one of the most popular videos on Facebook shows a woman in her Discovery eating a bowl of cereal as she waited in a traffic queue. A news story tells me that the police are investigating the film.

Another film I rather like shows a cyclist who gives the ‘V’ sign to a motorist he has just cut up – and then hits the kerb and comes off his bike rather spectacularly. Justice was served, you might say.

And when we go to school to pick up our great-grandson, Maxwell, you can bet mine is one of the very few vehicles parked legally or safely.

The recurring theme here is that road users are getting away with an awful lot of naughty things (apart from the cyclist, that is!) and I believe that this is because of the lack of police presence on our roads these days.

How many cars, trucks and vans, do we see parked in inappropriate places, yellow lines, corners, up on the pavements? Some years ago, when I worked for a local newspaper, I went out on patrol with a traffic policeman. I was writing a story about it.

I’m not saying which Lancashire town we were driving around but, on a Friday night, at one point the officer told me he was the only traffic car out that evening. He asked me not to reveal that fact and I didn’t (until now obviously!)... although I have worried about it ever since.

You see, what I am getting at here is that the traffic system in this country nowadays has descended into what can only be described as anarchy. Traffic and driving laws are routinely flouted. They are simply ignored.

And my point is that the road user isn’t remotely worried about being caught flouting those rules – because of the severe shortage of police out there. And when the police do witness any unlawful behaviour they most probably chose to ignore it because reporting the scrotes takes up too much time and paperwork.

So do I, or anyone else, have an answer to this? I would like to see a dedicated, national traffic police unit that does nothing else other than uphold the laws of the road and, possibly controversially, more on-the-spot fines allied to much higher penalties.

We need to regain control of the roads. Discuss...

A couple of years ago the beloved Marjorie and I sold our last caravan. After nearly 30 years, old age and my health combined to make caravanning just too much. I struggled to move it when I needed to hitch up, putting the awning up left me breathless and wasted (although, at Billing, we always had friends who would help), and all the bits and bobs like hooking up gas and getting water was a struggle. We now book in at a nearby hotel for the shows although we do miss the sitting around in the evening. I travel a lot to go fishing in different parts of the country, staying for a couple of days by a river bank, and so I took the little tent.

While a tent is a lot simpler than handling the caravan it brought its own problems, stuffing a wet tent into the back of my Range Rover, along with all my fishing tackle, was a bind. So, I’ve compromised and bought myself a little Teardrop camping trailer. What we are talking about is a very simple bedroom, with a galley in back. Add a garden gazebo as cover and I reckon I’m sorted.

It weighs next to nothing – it’s made of fibreglass – so I can move it virtually one-handed – and, of course, the P38’s 4.6-litre engine hardly knows it is there. Tomorrow night, as I write, I will be parked on the banks of the River Severn, near Shrewsbury, and I couldn’t be more delighted!

This year we are booked into the hotel at the entrance to Billing for the big show, but my beloved Marjorie, although a little apprehensive, has agreed to a weekend trip in the Teardrop quite soon. So – who knows – at next year’s Billing Show we just might be back somewhere near to our old pitch, otherwise known as Elson’s Corner.

“The traffic system in this country has descended into anarchy”