HIGHWAY OFFICERS TALK RUBBISH?

In July 2009, Highways Sector Officers specially requisitioned a bin wagon and driver from Hindley Town Yard in order to refute figures which I had supplied to Councillor Brierley, supporting his assertion that H.G.V.s could not safely make a turn round a traffic island on Atherton Road, without overhanging the pavement and thereby endangering pedestrians.

Needless to say, the truck concerned could not make the said turn - proof being recorded by a W.E.P. photographer, to the chagrin of the Officers present, and published in the paper on July 10th.

The implications are widespread. All Wigan's traffic schemes are based upon a publication entitled the 'Design Manual for Roads and Bridges' (DMRB), which unfortunately does not take account of vehicle widths over mirrors, and has resulted in hundreds of such measures being constructed without adequate tolerances for vehicles to pass in safety. There have been at least two fatalities as a result of this inadequacy.

So when you see a demolished bollard (probably unlit), it is not always due to driver error but more usually to an error of Highway design, and a lack of illumination. Such congestion as Wigan has is perfectly arguably man-made by 'traffic engineers', and endorsed by the T.M.U. (Traffic Mismanagement Unit). Their activities need much more scrutiny. Invariably the only beneficiaries of those so called 'improvements' are the contractors who have lucratively installed them, and thereby created a maintenance programme which was never needed in the first place.

ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF OUR MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN.