WBMT.....What baffled me today

[ancient_mariner]

... and an abomination!

There are substantially less attractive cars around, but it's not pretty.

 

[Norkie]

WBMT?

Road works, or not?




Only in Norfolk...

 

[Nod]

Not only there!

Last week, I was stuck in a jam for over an hour and when I got to the traffic lights, there was no sign of any work going on or having been done. Going back the other way the day after, no lights and no sign of any reason for them,

 

[ancient_mariner]

Oxfordshire too.

 

[Earley Man]

Not only there!

Last week, I was stuck in a jam for over an hour and when I got to the traffic lights, there was no sign of any work going on or having been done. Going back the other way the day after, no lights and no sign of any reason for them,

I found out the reason for this a couple of years ago. Apparently the digging is carried out by one contractor and necessary repairs by a different one. Now if I was an old cynic I would think that this means two council departments are both getting an incentive to work it this way, but that couldn't possibly be the reason could it?

 

[Nod]

Not sure that was the case in Dorset last week - there was no sign of any works going on when the traffic lights were active and no sign of any works having been done the day after!

 

[Pixbarmy]

The roadworks crews no longer put up their own signage and lights etc. One "signage and safety lights" crew, (including traffic lights etc) puts that up, then the actual roadworks are done ( sometimes with help from the signage crew if human controlled signs are needed) and back to the signage folks for removal of said signs and lighting! If additional works are necessary (drainage, gas, electrics, phones or internet cabling) can also use different contractors and may dig up and repair the same section, several times over!!!

 

[Boots]

The roadworks crews no longer put up their own signage and lights etc. One "signage and safety lights" crew, (including traffic lights etc) puts that up, then the actual roadworks are done ( sometimes with help from the signage crew if human controlled signs are needed) and back to the signage folks for removal of said signs and lighting! If additional works are necessary (drainage, gas, electrics, phones or internet cabling) can also use different contractors and may dig up and repair the same section, several times over!!!

We had the "signage and safety lights" guy turn up in our town. He parked his van, set up the road closure causing tailbacks right through the town, whilst he sat in his van on his phone all day. At the end of the day he took his gear down.

The next day he repeated the whole business. But this time, the other crew actually turned up to to dig up the road.

And they wonder why our national productivity is low!

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

If additional works are necessary (drainage, gas, electrics, phones or internet cabling) can also use different contractors and may dig up and repair the same section, several times over!!!

I've never understood why the British people accepted all the privatisation nonsense and the associated fragmentation of things like roadworks. As we have seen for decades now, all it's done is to increase the cost of public works and make them more troublesome.

An unpleasantly clear example of "place foot on table, point gun at foot..."


.

 

[Earley Man]

The roadworks crews no longer put up their own signage and lights etc. One "signage and safety lights" crew, (including traffic lights etc) puts that up, then the actual roadworks are done ( sometimes with help from the signage crew if human controlled signs are needed) and back to the signage folks for removal of said signs and lighting! If additional works are necessary (drainage, gas, electrics, phones or internet cabling) can also use different contractors and may dig up and repair the same section, several times over!!!

That's exactly the way I feel about it

 

[Earley Man]

We had the "signage and safety lights" guy turn up in our town. He parked his van, set up the road closure causing tailbacks right through the town, whilst he sat in his van on his phone all day. At the end of the day he took his gear down.

The next day he repeated the whole business. But this time, the other crew actually turned up to to dig up the road.

And they wonder why our national productivity is low!

Back in the summer a traffic light team put up the lights on one of our busier local routes on a Wednesday, another team working for a telecoms company dug the hole on the Friday morning.

On the following Tuesday the telecoms unit turned up and completed what they had to do by lunchtime , then the hole got refilled and resurfaced on the Thursday. Less than two weeks later the local council resurfaced the road.

 

[welshwizard645]

I was following a white van today in Warfield (just outside BrackHELL)... obviously a delivery driver

Sticker said "Frequent Stops. Please leave room for braking" or something along those lines...

Thing is, the text was so small you'd literally have to connect to his/her bumper to be able to read said sticker.

 

[JohnC6]

On Friday I bought a pair of Pikolino shoes and wanted a blue pair,too, which the shopkeeper didn't have so, back in the hotel room I Googled to see if I could get them online when we're back in the UK or,better still, a retailer. This is what I got.

Watch out :
"It looks like you're in Spain but heading to Hungary"

A box underneath this message,

"Ooops ! I've made a mistake.

A. I'll stay in Spain

B. No, I want to visit the Hungarian website...

 

[JohnC6]

It's a small world.

A couple of years ago we had a holiday in mid-Wales in Lampeter using it as a base. Outside the Co-op store was a muslim female Big Issue seller which I thought a bit strange. She could have been Romanian rather than Pakistani I suppose. I gave her a fiver but didn't take the publication so she'd have it all..net. One day we visited the Dyfi Osprey Centre and on the return to Lampeter went through Aberystwith. We made a left turn in the city centre at a large junction and there she was on the corner. So far,so good. Then some time after we got home I'm sure it was her outside our local Morrisons. I asked her if she'd sold the publication in Lampeter or Aberystwyth.."no". No more,no less. The same soft voice,same facial half-smile expression. I wasn't convinced.

We befriended a Welsh couple from Aberystwith here in the Tenerife hotel and, fortunately, it clicked so I mentioned it. The chap said he had seen her in Machynlith,too...18 miles away. He'd spoken to her and she said she was from Birmingham and a van picked up her and others and dropped her off. Gloucester..Morrisons..is just over 100 miles away. Could this be a scam or worse, exploitation ?

Birmingham to Aberystwyth...123 miles. I assume once there she'd stay in the area. To Machynlith is 35 miles. To Lampeter ..24 miles but it would involve overnight accomodation..maybe two or three nights. She could have visited other locations in the area.

Birmingham to Gloucester..63 miles.

 

[ancient_mariner]

It's a small world.

A couple of years ago we had a holiday in mid-Wales in Lampeter using it as a base. Outside the Co-op store was a muslim female Big Issue seller which I thought a bit strange. She could have been Romanian rather than Pakistani I suppose. I gave her a fiver but didn't take the publication so she'd have it all..net. One day we visited the Dyfi Osprey Centre and on the return to Lampeter went through Aberystwith. We made a left turn in the city centre at a large junction and there she was on the corner. So far,so good. Then some time after we got home I'm sure it was her outside our local Morrisons. I asked her if she'd sold the publication in Lampeter or Aberystwyth.."no". No more,no less. The same soft voice,same facial half-smile expression. I wasn't convinced.

We befriended a Welsh couple from Aberystwith here in the Tenerife hotel and, fortunately, it clicked so I mentioned it. The chap said he had seen her in Machynlith,too...18 miles away. He'd spoken to her and she said she was from Birmingham and a van picked up her and others and dropped her off. Gloucester..Morrisons..is just over 100 miles away. Could this be a scam or worse, exploitation ?

Exploitation I think. It's been this way for quite some time now, and a clue is often a truly homeless person might be grateful for food or a coffee, but someone on the begging gang will need the cash.

 

[JohnC6]

Exploitation I think. It's been this way for quite some time now, and a clue is often a truly homeless person might be grateful for food or a coffee, but someone on the begging gang will need the cash.

Ok...I'll give the Big Issue people a call when we get back home next week. I expect they're aware,though, if it's being going on for a long time . If I see her at Morrisons again I'll wait in my car to see who collects her..ie type of person and vehicle registration and if a 'van'..how many on board..type of people,too. I could even grab a photo surreptitiously.

 

[tarric]

I've never understood why the British people accepted all the privatisation nonsense and the associated fragmentation of things like roadworks. As we have seen for decades now, all it's done is to increase the cost of public works and make them more troublesome.

An unpleasantly clear example of "place foot on table, point gun at foot..."

View attachment 478953
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Have you not received the memo, Capitalism good Nationalisation bad, how else are these poor people going to make their millions if they can't milk the state.

 

[gman]

Have you not received the memo, Capitalism good Nationalisation bad, how else are these poor people going to make their millions if they can't milk the state.

Pure Capitalism is inarguably bad, but we operate a mixed economy. I think the problem perhaps lies with the dilution?