A Councillor and a Road Works Notice.

The first photo is of a local Councillor and the photographer from the local paper. I was waiting time on the Harbour this morning when the guy with the camera boarded the bus and asked if he could take a couple of photos of the other guy who he explained was a councillor doing his bit to publicize an up coming event called, "No Car Day." Happy to oblige this good cause I let them take a few shots, some with me in the frame. So I may end up on page 23 of the local rag if I am lucky.

After the shoot, I asked the councillor if he was actually going to take a ride on the bus. He didn't come up with the words, "Don't be daft." but he may as well have done.

After they had gone and I continued with the journey a lady passenger came up to me as she was getting off and asked what the photo shoot had been about and I explained. "Oh," she said. "I thought it was a councillor. Not a word of explanation to us poor passengers. Some of us have appointments to keep. Just do as he wants. Just like the council." I often wonder why people want to be councillors, what ever they do someone will have a go at them. It wasn't as if the bus had been delayed in any way, I was only waiting time; we get 3 minutes waiting time in the summer on the Harbour. If I had been late I would have said so and let the poor sod in the bus behind get his photo in the paper.



The second photo is likely to have longer implications, 11 weeks longer. A little history concerning this set of road works is in order. Some time last summer a new supermarket was built in Newton Abbot and the road lay out was changed some what. The main road was re-routed round the back of the super store and a roundabout removed. While the work was being done temporary traffic lights were erected. They have been there over a year now. A new road was laid which was only 12 feet wide, not wide enough for two buses to pass each other. So we now have a single lane road controlled by traffic lights at either end when there is plenty of room for a really wide road. Waiting at these lights, right out side the library which is full of "SILENCE" notices, delays the bus up to 2 minutes which is 3% of it's journey time.

At the time I believed that some one had misread the plans or the distances were in metric and the road workers measured in feet or some such thing. I even email Devon County Council last December and asked them when the road would be finished and had the been a problem. I got an email back saying the work would be done in April and the road width had been on the original plan to allow for pedestrian access and no mistake had been made. Yeah, right, I believe you. We shall see in 11 weeks if the original plans have been changed and the road widened or the single lane road remains in place just to show what the original plans were.

Well now we have 11 weeks of possible delays getting out of Newton Abbot bus station, there is no other way out and no where else we can put the bus station for the next 11 weeks. Should be fun.