End this ‘highway robbery’
BUS LANE HAS BECOME £2.5K DAILY CASH COW FOR COUNCIL Guest columnist puts the case for scrapping the new bus lane on Canal Street which has led to thousands of motorists being fined £30, which he says has further damaged the city’s reputation for welcomin
THERE is something offensive about a new traffic system which regularly fines motorists for breaches. Bossy? Certainly. Bullying? Possibly.
Chronically cash-strapped Nottingham City Council is fining motorists who use a new bus lane on Canal Street £30 a time. They have inadvertently become a milch cow.
It is all part of a scheme to pedestrianise Collin Street immediately south of the former Broadmarsh Shopping Centre.
So far, since the new road system was implemented, about 6,500 motorists have been fined a total of nearly £200,000.
An average of 84 motorists a day breach the bus lane rules, clocking up a daily revenue stream for the council of about £2,500.
However, that so many motorists are breaching the new system points to a serious problem that the road traffic engineers have not resolved. Although Nottingham may have a reputation for being a rebellious city – the civil war, Luddites and the burning down of Nottingham Castle – these motorists don’t suggest a class seeking deliberately to flout the law.
The council should not sit back and regard Canal Street as a profitable income stream – bringing in cash at an annualised rate of £922,000.
The people of Nottingham have much to moan about when it comes to their council with the word “sorry” tripping from councillors’ lips. The most obvious is the squandering of £38m on setting up its own failed energy company, a loss working out at more than £750,000 per Labour councillor.
The authority is now working hard getting its structure and finances in order after a rollicking from the district auditor, a Government inspector and most recently the Housing Communities and Local Government Secretary Robert Jenrick. This has caused considerable damage to the reputation of the Queen of the Midlands that will prove hard to restore and burnish.
Not content with treating its hard-pressed council taxpayers poorly, its behaviour to this group of motorists appears cavalier.
Most will be there by mistake, unfamiliar with a counterintuitive traffic system.
At times, Nottingham appears to have lost the gift of making friends, listening where it matters. It could do well to recover the ability to build relationships. The city centre is in a dire state as stores close for good and people work from home. Shoppers are in short supply. Motorists already suffer some of the most expensive car parking charges in the country. Meanwhile, a giant 2,000-space car park is nearing completion on Canal Street, preparing to woo motorists.
Neither Councillor Adele Williams (city council portfolio holder for local transport) nor a senior traffic officer has put their head above water, instead hiding anonymously behind “a spokesperson”. “We have met all legal requirements for signage and have gone above and beyond these adding additional advisory signage....”.
The seven Nolan principles of public life, to which all councillors and those in public life subscribe, calls for objectivity, accountability and openness.
Nottingham’s new chief executive Mel Barrett will, in the few weeks he has been in Nottingham, know how many feel towards his council. He should sit down with Councillor Williams and summon the appropriate chief traffic tsar to resolve the highway robbery on Canal Street.
What did Nottingham City Council have to say?
■ Responding, Councillor Adele Williams, portfolio holder for transport, said: “Enormous improvements are under way in the area to provide a new, greener, pedestrian-friendly entrance to the city, involving rerouting traffic.
“We gave significant advance warning and an extended grace period when no fines were issued and have gone well beyond legal requirements to make the changes as clear as possible to motorists.
“This approach has resulted in fewer than one percent of the vehicles passing through this area being fined – meaning the new road layouts and substantial signage are abundantly clear to more than 99 percent of drivers. “It’s clear that our intention behind the restrictions is not to make money but simply to allow the transformation of this area to take place.
“Our work to create a welcoming environment for residents and visitors has already significantly improved the Sussex Street area outside the new Nottingham College City Hub, and will continue.”
rithm to produce a record and initiate program, an account update or automated response by template letter. The computer does not acknowledge your circumstances or feelings but can only offer a “YES” or “NO” if you have ticked all the boxes.
Relying on technology, we have lost the ability to communicate as human beings, to recognise and respect feelings and comments, along with applying our transitional analysis skills in responses.
Society created social media, a monster with no regulation, to try and address the social isolation created by the dependency on computers, rather than physically or verbally interacting with them. Even our telecommunications are disrespectful to us, with their computer-generated voices and numerous options and suboptions. Do companies not realise that not everyone can afford an unlimited mobile package?
While we are all confined to our homes, will we become even more slaves to it? There is a world outside, beyond the screen, somewhere I venture every chance I get, where before this pandemic we could engage in conversation, wonder at the sights even this county can offer, without charge.
How many people actually see the wildlife on their screens in real life?
Tony Morris Carlton