Conversations

In my previous post I wrote an open letter to Lynne Feathersone about her proposed ban on the enforcement of parking controls on private grounds; specifically on private estates.

Where I live — in a small flat in a mansion block with a wonderful view looking over central London — is within such a private estate. It is pretty large: there are over 600 flats (apartments) and a similar number of houses, spread over a good-sized area of land, and there are two road entrances (except in bad weather when more side gates may get opened) and while each mansion block had an entryphone system installed about ten years ago it would be financially impossible to install something similar from every home across the estate to the top and bottom gates. The top one has an automated barrier fitted which closes automatically each night around 11pm and opens around 10am, although between those hours it will rise to let you leave the estate or you can enter with a 'beeper' which you can rent from the estate management committee for £50.

The lower gate is closed a few times each year for a few hours so that the 'private' nature of the roads can be legally enforced and maintained. At these times (and on the evening of Halloween) one of the estate staff stop vehicles and pass them through if they have a valid reason to be on the estate. But it wouldn't be a practical option to have a 24/7 attendant on the gate (though, as it happens, there used to be one in the 1930s when the estate was built, as there was also a pony and trap to bring people up the hill to their home from that main lower entrance.)

So returning to that post, Lynne and I engaged in a 'conversation' yesterday via twitter, and this is a record of that interaction.

lfeatherstone: Holly Lodge has gates-first defence-and ticketing better alternative which is properly regulated and a proportionate punishment

alisonw: Two gates, neither staffed. Top closed 11pm-11am otherwise open, bottom always open. No deterrent therefore. Thx for reply.

alisonw: plus a ticket has no effect on a dumped vehicle, which has been the major problem in the past.

lfeatherstone: duumped vehicles can be removed if no tax etc. Why don't you close gates? No need to answer - but seems the logical way forward

alisonw: sometimes (amazingly) dumped vehicles still have tax discs on display. Closing gates if few homes is fine but not if 600+

lfeatherstone: well - ticketing is an adequate 'punishment' for what is, after all, a parking offence

alisonw: except that the legal & actual effectiveness of a privately-issued 'ticket'is very close to zero so minimal effect.

And that is where we've currently left it. I still feel that the current proposal is going to lead to serious problems. It is sensible where the area to be managed is small enough to be gated in a controlled manner, but not for the large-size residential estates so common across London.

The ban on clamping.

The BBC are reporting that Lynne Featherstone, as the Equalities and Criminal Information Minister, is to bring forward a bill to ban the clamping or removal of vehicles parked on private land. It is "committed to ending the menace of rogue private sector wheel-clampers once and for all" she says. In the main I completely agree with the sentiment where it is unclear that you are on on 'private land', for example where there are no gates to pass through from the public highway.

But where I live this will cause serious problems, so I have just written to Lynne asking that she reconsider the detail of her proposals.

"Hi Lynne,

Though I live 'just over the border' so to speak, I felt I must write to you as a matter of urgency over today's announcement about the banning of wheel clamping and towing away on private land in England and Wales.

The Holly Lodge estate, where I live, as with many other similar estates is actually private property; the road upkeep is paid via a fee from each householder (and a substantial contribution by Camden Council for the blocks they lease).

As private land - and outside the remit of parking controls by the Council - it has been for the estate management committee to deal with dumped vehicles and such, usually by removal after warnings have been left on a vehicle for many days but occasionally when it is blocking an entrance.

The proposals you have announced today would appear to place the maintenance and free access to such roads on many estates in severe danger of becoming dumping grounds for old vehicles.

The council haven't the power to manage this, and the police only get involved where they is 'danger' involved.

Could I ask that this situation - which I know is widespread in London and elsewhere - is urgently considered before the bill is brought forward.

Thankyou"

We already have the occasional problem with people realising that they can park on the estate when the adjacent roads are subject to parking restrictions, so this would make it massively worse. If dumped vehicles, especially, can never be removed then the possibility for residents to find themselves a place to park near their home will reduce and, in time, disappear. And although we have gates to the estate it isn't practical or feasible to have them staffed around the clock.

If you also live on such a private road please let Ms Featherstone know by using the contact form on her website, or by commenting here.

Acts of god

All the recent media coverage about weather-related transport service problems has brought to mind that on this night exactly thirty years ago I caught a train home from Euston Station to Watford, where I then lived. I'd spent the evening out with friends and was so catching a BR 'staff' train at 01:50 on the Watford DC line.

In those days the last 'public' service left Euston a few minutes after midnight, but regularly not arriving there until much later — and having to wait for the first train of the day — I'd very helpfully been invited by BR staff to use their services, which ran at 01:50 and 02:40. Odd services, really, as they only called at a few of the actual stations on the line, but additionally stopped in the seemingly middle of nowhere. One would then hear a door slam and a shouted "g'night Bert" and see a shadowy figure walk across the tracks and over some back fence into a road or house. And most nights I'd caught one of these services it had smoothly taken me up to Watford Junction where I'd then walk home in about ten minutes or so.

That night though the service had made its way past Queen's Park and was heading north just after 2am when the power went off. And stayed off. Eventually news came down that the power was off on the whole line due to a tunnel fire, so we'd have to wait for an all-clear from the fire brigade and the track engineers.

Around 5:30am the power returned and, annoyingly for me, it was decided that because trains were now 'out of place' my train would go straight back to Euston. I eventually arrived home around 7'ish, changed, and went straight back into work again!

That wasn't the only time I've been on a train which has had 'issues' and held for ages or taken out of service — both of which have happened to me in Germany — but it came to mind now because I seem to keep hearing of people 'angry' with the problems the weather has caused, as though they are some modern King Canute's who can demand that the severe conditions in France, the UK and Europe generally must not affect their travel plans. They seem to believe they have a 'right' that everything is done to suit their personal needs, ignoring that there is the matter of the safety of those who drive vehicles, maintain the permanent way, steer ships and fly aeroplanes to also be considered.

That there will be bad winter weather every year is — obviously — a 'given' for many countries. A winter without snow in Finland, Denmark, or even Scotland, would be an extreme example of global warming. But for countries and regions further south it isn't always so clear-cut. In my home town of London we get occasional snow, though not every year. When it does come it usually melts within hours, or at most a day or so.

Timing is everything though, and if a large amount hits during peak times on the roads then the gritting lorries can't get around properly. And gritting at the wrong time is just wasteful as it can be washed away without doing anything beneficial if spread too early.

So while the lack of train services, or flights, or clear roads is — clearly — an inconvenience, I do wish some people would stop bleating on about how they are taking it so personally. We don't control the weather. We probably can't ever control the weather. Snow happens, floods happen, heatwaves happe, we have to survive them the best we can. Complaining that the weather is stopping you from going somewhere isn't the fault of the airline or the train company.

It is an " Act of God", not a personal attack on your travel plans. So — maybe — just try accepting that there are going to be delays which will end when they are able to end, and let the staff of those carriers have some rest from the ear-bashing. They don't want you hanging around stations and airports either.

Today I killed a fly

This morning I saw a large fly trying to escape my room here. As all the windows were locked and it would be a complex route to find a way out for a fly then I, without any real forethought, squashed it.

Then I started wondering about the possible consequences. Maybe this fly was going to mutate and create a race of superior flies which would destroy humankind and take over the world, in which case I had done a great thing.

But maybe it was going to fly into a car driving along the road and make the driver crash into a tree, but survive. And if it hadn't the car was about to get hit by a juggernaut at the junction wherein the driver, and his daughter in the back seat, would have been killed, and the daughter would have gone on to develop a cure for one of the great fatal diseases of our world. And now, by my killing that fly, she too would die and so not create that cure to save humanity.

Complex things, consequences.

We can't foresee the future — which is probably a good thing as otherwise most of us would probably just give up — but nor can politicians now whether the decisions they take are actually 'right' or 'wrong' in the long term. Some decisions may be great for the short-term but destroy us in the long run (like saving money on the space missions), and some seem really really wrong initially but turn out all right in the end.

Just wish we knew which a bit better …