"Mail on Sunday" Newspaper, 4th April 2004:
Here is a summary of the Mail on Sunday article by Brian Coleman, Executive Member for the Environment on Barnet Council:
Barnet Council in North London has decided to scrap expensive road humps and also bus and cycle lanes that cause bottlenecks in traffic hot spots. In a radical new traffic policy Barnet is trying to keep traffic moving by removing traffic calming obstacles.
Other local authorities in London are following Barnet's lead, as is Derby City Council. This is common sense, but councillors who agree with these measures are frustrated by some highways officers on local councils, whose jobs involve devising new road schemes. Barnet has shed six officers who were employed under the previous Lib Dem-Labour alliance. In Barnet 120 obstacles have been removed, and 500 are still to be tackled. The London Ambulance Service claims that 500 unnecessary deaths a year in London alone are caused by traffic calming measures. The fire service also complains about the obstacles, saying they add to response times.
(Think of the salaries to be saved locally if we dispensed with these officers! - Star Editor.)
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"Star" Newspaper, 29th April 2004:
Barnet: The council that removes speed bumps
The Star Page 6 April 29 2004
I ENCLOSE a copy of an article (see summary above) from the Mail on Sunday of April 4 (2004) by a councillor from Barnet in North London.
I find it encouraging that a number of enlightened authorities at least are reverting to road systems which will actually prioritise traffic movement.
The frightening thing is that it has cost the residents of Barnet £10 million to provide inferior and chaotic roads and what can only be regarded as "non jobs" for highway officers over the past 10 years.
And if the London Ambulance Service is correct, in all probability traffic calming has caused a good number of unnecessary deaths. What a farce! Perhaps we can suggest to our own local authorities that they take and digest a large slice of this same commonsense, or is this yet another word denied us in this Orwellian nightmare that we are living in?
G. F. Howard, Appley Court, Appley Drive, Camberley.
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