Messages

Quite agree, pandering to this dirty habit is hardly a good advert for a good business!

Answering back is great fun, you can really get them wound up.  I love the ones where they've obviously got your address, so I generally tell them that their records are wrong and that the number they'd called was a government safe house in Leeds, so whoever had supplied the list was in serious trouble.

Where is the cartel?  There are a few small suppliers, I use one.  Prices aren't massively different, but then they aren't between Supermarkets, and at the moment there are just four big ones in that market.  At least for fuel, you can go elsewhere.  I have to say, for what actually gets delivered the Council Tax, particularly the town council precept is an extortion; shame there is no competition there.   

Fashions come and go!  Where are all the old boys on bikes cycling home for lunch these days? 

I'm a relative newbie to the Town, just been here 25 years!  During that time, I can't remember the town 'buzzing', for the most part it was pretty sleepy.  Parkway gave a creditable impression of a derelict WWII bomb site.  When my dear old Dad used to come to visit, he'd often joke about it being a free war time experience theme park.  Given the number of staff they employ, I'm really quite shocked that WBC didn't foresee the effect retail parks would have on the town centre.  What did they think would happen? Equally, the Voda busses have been 'running empty' for ages now, one would have thought the first rule of dead horses should have been applied - if you find yourself on one, get off.

I seem to recall WBC insisted as part of the planning constraints...the yellow greens being in power at the time.  The rationale touted at the time being that restricting the number of cars by having the busses would be more green.  Really works that one, having virtually empty big diesel engined busses chugging round town all day; well done WBC!

Really? Care to give a rational explanation as to why taxis differ from any other commercial vehicle in a time critical trade trying to keep schedules. Or, better, why Vodafone are so scared of their customers (or think so poorly of them) that they can't share public transport.  Please note, I really don't believe to bull about passengers being a security risk on their site! 

I must admit, I've seen that before now.  Nonetheless, I can't see why an exception has been made for taxis or indeed private busses.

I thought this is rather a strange statement from the Council!  It's wholly unnecessary as the answer is quite simple.  The Council say the signs are installed properly, so it follows that motorist disobeying can be prosecuted.  If recent press reports are accurate and the Traffic Commissioner has apparently inadvertently said otherwise, surely he would simply issue a clarification or a retraction?

Really quite worrying all this.  If it keeps up much longer, that 'lake / reservoir' idea the Water Board came up with in the 1950s might become a reality.

I'd go with that!  This is where Neighbourhood Watch could really come into play.  The miscreants must be local people.  Once identified, the stuff could be simply returned to the owner, I'd be happy to help with deliveries.

This must be the one shown on TV a few months ago!  Nice to know it's coming our way, which means electrification is really on its way.

I'm sure it's wonderful technology!  That isn't the issue; it's more when things go wrong it takes an inordinate time to put things right.  Far, far too long in my view, and that this happened more than once in short order must demonstrate serious deficiencies in the service contract. 

Another issue, which to my mind is probably a design fault, is that the lights didn't simply switch out when they failed.  There may be some argument about this, but it would have saved silly comments from the Police, which just served to add to the confusion.

All in all, if this is the official response, it's a bit lame and those of us who were hugely inconvenienced by the problems deserve a better explanation - rather than some self congratulatory puff!

After all, in many walks of life we have far more sophisticated computer systems delivering faultless service, against even bigger traffic fluctuations year on year.  Yes, now and again, even these fault, but then where contracts are managed well they are put right pretty quickly. 

Just hope the good burgers of Greenham have deep pockets!  Let alone the first cost, these things generally cost a huge amount to run.  Still, I'm sure the Parish would have done its sums.

Yes, it's a shame, because this is really quite a good idea.  The real irony being that it's the sort of scheme the LibDems would be pushing on with if they held the ring!  Oh well, politics, politics.