Council should reverse decision to fine driver
THE report (Echo, November 9) in which it was stated that Cardiff council had fined a motorist for entering a bus lane to facilitate being overtaken by an ambulance is beyond belief and the decision should be reversed immediately.
When I learned to drive almost 70 years ago it was drummed into me that motorists should always give way to emergency services unless in doing so there is a risk of endangering the safety of pedestrians.
If this is no longer expected of motorists then I have been behaving incorrectly since 1952, and will continue doing so until I give up driving.
Many members of the public are of the opinion that the imposition of a rule of not driving in bus lanes is a cynical way of raising money for cash-strapped local authorities. Cardiff council’s ruling on this occasion seems to uphold this accusation.
If 21st-century technology is so sophisticated that it can detect motorists who transgress into bus lanes for a few seconds it should also be capable of recording what happens before and after this so-called breach. Surely the presence of an ambulance on the screen before and after will confirm one way or another if the motorist is telling the truth.
The report suggests the motorist showed a high degree of good judgement, quite contrary to the action taken by officials at the council. Surely we have not reached a stage in life when human beings, blessed with common sense, cannot override the “black and white” interpretation of facts stored in technical equipment.
Colin Evans
Penarth
In praise of Neil Warnock
WHEN you came we were near the abyss but you connected with the fans and who can forget the sheer bliss when you took us to the Promised Land?
If decisions had gone our way, especially in the Chelsea game, we’d be in the Premier League today, well, that’s life, but what a shame!
The Sala tragedy you found hard to take and this season has not been the best but you gave us glory make no mistake,
I’ll remember your fist pumps till my death.
So Mr Warnock, I truly thank you for bringing good times to us once more, part of your heart will be forever blue you’re the greatest manager we ever saw.
Guy Fletcher Pantmawr, Cardiff
Capitalist class versus the posties
HOW bitterly disappointing it is that the Royal Court of Justice has ruled in favour of Royal Mail’s fundamentally undemocratic attempt to upend strike action by the Communication Workers Union, amid magnificent support by its members, on the basis of the word of one manager.
The strike was supported by 97% of balloted workers on a 76% turnout, very easily meeting the government’s intentionally difficult standard for legal strike action – but a single judge has declared it void in one fell swoop.
The CWU is appealing this decision, and will be discussing the next course of action.
It has lambasted the judgment as an “utter outrage”.
Of course, judges are only obeying the laughably cynical Trade Union Act 2016, which was ostensi
So Mr Warnock, I truly thank you for bringing good times to us once more Guy Fletcher Pantmawr
bly intended to be only part of a raft of measures against lobbying which, curiously, never actually changed anything for corporate lobbyists.
It imposed burdensome minimum thresholds meaning strike ballots are invalid if fewer than 50% of union members vote, and demanding that 40% of members (not of those voting) support strike action in certain sectors.
This undignified legislation allows injustices such as members of the Public and Commercial Services union being barred from holding a legal national strike over pay, despite 85.6% of ballots cast being in favour, because it fell marginally short of the mandatory 50% participation rate.
It also means trade unions must mobilise their entire membership, in hundreds of thousands of workplaces, which as most would appreciate isn’t easy.
Striking posties deserve our full support and solidarity because this affects us all. By removing our fundamental democratic right to withdraw labour, the capitalist class is setting a perilous precedent to chip away at our other freedoms.
Daniel Pitt Mountain Ash