Chesterfield Online Forum

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Sorastro on June 08, 2018, 01:44:47 PM

Title: Sheffield road improvements et al
Post by: Sorastro on June 08, 2018, 01:44:47 PM
I vaguely remember tuning into radio Sheffield in the works van {circa 2011} to the news that basically every street/road in Sheffield was to be re surfaced and I'm almost positive they said it would take 5 years to complete.
I now learn that "phase 1" is complete and they are now beginning "phase 2" so I have obviously missed something, as nowadays I very rarely listen to radio Sheffield {or visit Sheffield} since I stopped work.

I was given to understand it would ALL take 5 years {so finish in 2016/2017} and I would imagine quite a few other people were given that impression too.
Either way how is it that large tasks, Nationally and locally that need to be done, i.e. Olympics, motorways, rail upgrades, road surfacing etc. never seem to be costed correctly and always, but always overrun.

If you get an estimate to say re-point your chimney, the guy says yes it will take me 2 days and the cost is £250 and everyone is in agreement. Then it takes him a fortnight and your presented with a bill for £1000 you wouldn't be very happy, and rightly so.

Yet Government and local council schemes end up like the above all the time, and we as the taxpayer are just expected to accept it.

The only thing I do feel sorry for Sheffield council over is the tree felling that needs to be done, I don't want to get into who's right and who's wrong, but having spent a good few years delivering in and around Sheffield I've seen first hand the state of some of those trees and what they've done to the pavements and roads, there are a lot that are in a bad state no question, so my answer to those tree huggers is if they prevent the council from chopping down {a legitimately dangerous tree} then the council should wash it's hands of that particular highways upkeep in short "You want the trees you've got them, but any damage they cause will be met by the residents of that road, the council will not entertain any claims arising from injury directly as a result of the condition of the trees".
Well if I was on the council that's what I'd say.
Title: Re: Sheffield road improvements et al
Post by: Fly on June 08, 2018, 05:18:41 PM
Sadly in this day and age, councils have a care of duty to do things, (with the ever decreasing budget they have).
Therefore, it's the council tax payer who ends up footing the bill in any case  :(
Title: Re: Sheffield road improvements et al
Post by: kromercap on June 08, 2018, 11:23:52 PM

If you get an estimate to say re-point your chimney, the guy says yes it will take me 2 days and the cost is £250 and everyone is in agreement. Then it takes him a fortnight and your presented with a bill for £1000 you wouldn't be very happy, and rightly so.

Yet Government and local council schemes end up like the above all the time, and we as the taxpayer are just expected to accept it.



Actually the whole scheme, re-surfacing the roads and replacing all existing public lighting with LED, was paid for by an EU grant.
So it didn't really cost local council tax payers anything.

Of course the UK taxpayers overall chipped in a portion of it, via our EU budget contribution.
And let's face it, some over-paid, under-employed button pusher in Brussels doesn't care where the money goes, or how much gets wasted, as long as he can file a report saying how well they have done improving Sheffield's environmental impact.

Because that's his next promotion, and pay rise, sorted out nicely, thank you very much.
Title: Re: Sheffield road improvements et al
Post by: Sorastro on June 15, 2018, 11:02:24 AM
Speaking of the railways !
Although I know little about it I do tend to know a {potential} waste of time when I see it. HS2
As I have mentioned before I hope this absolute waste of time will never materialise, and I don't think it will, you have only to see how the government is "handling" Brexit to know HS2, should it go ahead, will be a total and very very costly failed experiment.

The latest "casualty" in the better railways saga appears to be the Glasgow to Edinburgh upgrade. Apparently to be fully completed in 2019
at a cost of £742 million and the journey time cut by 6 minutes. These 6 minutes has already added a further £200 million {approximately} to the overall cost and could still rise even further, these 6 minutes means that the journey time would be 52 minutes instead of at present 58 minutes, that's a lot of wonga for the sake of 6 minutes, strangely enough it has been suggested that years ago when it was run by British rail the journey time then {over 40 years ago} was 49 minutes, a good 9 minutes shorter.
An analogy of the above would be along the lines of you travel to work every morning in your car a ten year old motor but it gets you there and the journey takes 20 minutes a day, then along comes someone who takes away your old motor gives you back the exact same model but say with a bigger engine and says this car will get you to work in 15 minutes and it will cost you £40 grand to buy and you have no choice.

I wouldn't trust this government {or any of the others for that matter} to put together a train set, let alone the real thing these M.P.'s are getting money for old rope. They have no idea what they are doing and it's the taxpayer that foots the bill every time. It's the same with Brexit everyone can see they are making a hash of it and are screaming that time is running out, yes of course it is because they have just wasted 2 years in which s*d all has been achieved.