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[Genem]

Bring back horse and cart deliveries, like the old brewery dray horses. Better for the environment and plenty to put on the rhubarb 

Have all deliveries of goods unloaded at what once used to be "Railway Stations" and hence by cart to the final address.

I recall a Documentary about an American city which was among the first to introduce electric trams.... to attempt to address the huge amounts of horse droppings that horse-drawn vehicles were leaving.

Delivery tricycles are supposedly a coming thing in city centres.

One madness in the online purchasing world is the delivery by courier of small parcels - a £25 box of address lables were delivered here yesterday. Great service but the 16 mile round trip from the nearest small town to deliver that one package cannot make sense. ....if that had come with the Postie along with a villages-worth of post it would be a lot more "green" all round. Deregulation of parcels and the breaking of the Royal Mail monopoly was not a good idea.

[w3526602]

Hi,

You drive to the shops/work/cinema, etc. And drive back. TWO journeys. frowned at!

You call a taxi (based in middle of town). Taxi drives to your house, takes you into town, returns to base. Then you phone for a taxi, to come and get your, take you home, and return to base. I make that more than FOUR journeys ... but our Glorius Leaders will smile upon you, coz you are saving the planet.

OK, probably a different matter in London, where you can hail a passing cab ... except when everybody needs one.

In Georgetown (Penang), we used roving taxis (licenced and pirate), and argued the price before getting in. Also tri-shaws, which were a shade too narrow for our pair of European hips ... and we always felt sorry for the elderly and emaciated little old man pedalling.

While we were there, three inebriated English men were returning to their hotel after a night out. Three Europeans in a tri-shaw? Keep reading ...

Bump, bump! "What was that?" They stopped to investigate, found a 22ft python, lying across the road. There can't be many pythons who have ridden in an already overloaded trishaw.

The police station refused to accept it, so it shared their hotel room for the night.

The following day, they donated it to the Snake Temple, where, once a week, a white rabbit joined it for lunch. I don't know how long pythons live ... this was over 50 years ago.

When we were living on Penang, the monks at the Snake Temple were happy to let tourists drape vipers round their necks, and be photographed. Nobody warned them that the vipers tended to wake up when taken from their incense laded environment.

602 (Who's daughter and grandchildren travel everywhere by taxi.)

[w3526602]

One madness in the online purchasing world is the delivery by courier of small parcels

Hi Genem,

In the year following demob, I was a self-employed mini-cab driver in South London. I did 50,000 miles that year.

One afternoon, I was given a package to deliver in North London. It was easier/quicker/cheaper to drive to Tooting Bec, and go by "tube" (underground railway).

Problem! I delivered the package OK ... but they asked me to carry a about 100kg of packages back to my original customer.

602

[rustylandrovers]

Sheep, sheep, sheep, all reacting to propaganda and scaremongering.

Yea, those fools listening to climate scientists with their 'education' and 'data'. What do they know?

[w3526602]

Hi,

My cunning plan is to dig up the Penines, and dump them in the irish Sea. I think that will stop it raining in Lancashire.

Ask your local library if they can find you a copy of "A Horseman Riding By", then ask for the sequels. one of the sub-plots involves the floods in .. er ... Lynemouth (but not by name) Our older readers may remember that real life drama. The author explains how it came about (not enough tree-huggers).

Also try to get a copy of "I bought a Mountain" . It's an autobiographical account of somebody returning from the war (WW2?) and buying four square miles of primitive Wales, and his adventures there-on. He laid on DIY hydro-electricity to his farm worker's cottages, etc. One of my mates at DVLA knew the authors wife (I think she was a Min of Ag Inspector).

My dad always claimed that London was built by two Irishmen and a horse and cart. Horses are lovely creatures, but not much cop as a form of transport ... unless there is nothing else.

During the 1950s, a young woman used to flash through Croydon on a pedal cycle. Crawley to Croydon, and back every day, I think about 25 miles each way. I think she held the record for every women only cycle race, including 12 hours and 24 hours. Try a Google for Eileen Sheridan. then go and buy shares in Raleigh and Hercules.

602

[Rog-from-Bix]

Yea, those fools listening to climate scientists with their 'education' and 'data'. What do they know?

Yeah banning diesel in Bristol will make all the difference, I am sure it will offset all the new coal power stations they are building in China and India.

[Porkscratching]

Yea, those fools listening to climate scientists with their 'education' and 'data'. What do they know?

The point is you can take statistics and select the bits you want to make them say whatever suits your latest agenda, 
they conveniently don't mention the spike in 'global warming' that happened just before the period they use to create the 'scare'....and somehow i don't think they had evil diesel engines in the medieval period.....

[Wittsend]

Yeah banning diesel in Bristol will make all the difference, I am sure it will offset all the new coal power stations they are building in China and India.

.... to say nothing of the nuclear power station just up the coast

 

[g6anz]

Banning diesel from Bristol won't affect me much as I rarely drive into the city. I do all my shopping locally or out of town. However it will kill whats left of the city centre for shopping.
Also the Bristol bus service is one of the worst in the country. I think one of the reasons for the blanket ban is that the BRI (the main Bristol Hospital) as well as the dental and eye hospitals are on a major route through the city and the amount of diesel fumes from the jammed traffic is not good for patients. So rather than sort out the road system to alleviate the problem there is a knee jerk reaction to ban diesels. This wont stop buses passing the BRI as they will be allowed, or so I understand.

Malcolm (Bristol)

[neddy]

The  barmy burgers of Birmingham are talking of banning all cars from the city centre in addition to taxing work place parking spaces, a central emissions limit and knocking down a vital  flyover on the A34 at Perry Barr.
They are anti motorist, putting in cycle lanes along the roads together with a "Sprint Bus " lane restricting the road width.

[w3526602]

I think one of the reasons for the blanket ban is that the BRI (the main Bristol Hospital) as well as the dental and eye hospitals are on a major route through the city and the amount of diesel fumes from the jammed traffic is not good for patients.

Hi G6anz,

I have been pondering recently, on that very subject, for several weeks.

The residents of the whole county subscribe to the costs of a hospital (OK, I'm guessing there). but ease of access to the facillities is enjoyed by only those who live in the town. Barbara took a tumble a cfew weeks ago, which means calling an ambulance crew to get her back on her feet. The operator said it was a Friday night, it was havoc on the streets, so she would have a long wait.

OK, I can understand the logic and priorities, but taken to it's extreme, a situation could arise where no ambulance would be available till the following day. All very sensible, but nobody seems to factor in that victims of minor incidents (who don't go boozing on Saturday evenings) are also subscribing to the emergency services.

No, I don't have an answer. But then again, I'm not a Planner with facts, figures, and facilities, at my finger tips.

OT. Do a Google for "TIME LIMIT MEDICAL MALPRACTICE" (or whatever word is). I won't make that mistake again.

602

[Simon K.]

The  barmy burgers of Birmingham are talking of banning all cars from the city centre in addition to taxing work place parking spaces.

The trouble is, works parking places are already taxed, each works parking space adds £50 if my memory is correct to the businesses' Business Rates valuation, so what Birmingham is proposing is in fact a double taxation, a bit like vat on fuel duty.

[Wittsend]

A bit ironic really - at the thin end of the wedge we have the 2nd highest tides in the world - a rise/fall of some 40+ ft.

Build a barrage with tidal mills (gives another road crossing) use the excess electricity to power the wind turbines as fans, point at Bristol and all the diesel fumes will be blown away (to Wales)
(If only Brunel were alive today)


 

[oilstain]

My view is that when we elect local councillors they get to serve their term, at the end of the term we have a second vote, if they are viewed to have done a good job they get paid and their expenses or if they are viewed to have done a bad job they are taken into the street and shot like mad dogs
Is this O/T

[Wittsend]

Is this O/T

Probably, but I would whole heartedly agree ...
I would add, that their promises and policies should be legally binding "contracts".