[David9694]

A new catch-all Tea Shop thread for those miscellaneous new stories that don’t quite fit with parking, crashing into buildings or trapped/prisoners in their homes. 

Topic

[David9694]

Julian’s had enough.  Sent

Julian’s had enough.  Sent out for some last-minute items just before Christmas, what should have been a half hour trip turned out to be more than an hour.  He encountered a diversion, and would you believe it traffic lights on the diversion route.  He was so cross he phoned Hampshire Highways, who failed to give satisfaction.  Grateful as she was for the cranberry sauce, brandy cream and Buck’s Fizz Mrs T expressed disappointment about the Baileys.  That really was it for Julian.  They’d sold out of Baileys original, he had phoned (twice, actually) to ask if either of the other variants would be ok, but she didn’t answer.  As this was fast developing into a row, she gave up trying to dissuade him from writing to the paper. 
 
Readers’ letters: Anarchy of road closures in New Forest

It appears to be open season on road closures in our district.

Unannounced road closures with no pre-warning, temporary three-way traffic lights set up everywhere. Some of these hold-ups like tree/hedge cutting must be known to authorities in advance. Repeat visits to the same sites, eg Gore Road, lack of diversion signs, works which appear to have no benefit to drivers.

Who is approving all this? Don’t try contacting Hampshire Highways, they don’t want to know. Utilities are a law unto themselves.

What are all these delays costing the local economy in missed appointments? Never mind increased pollution. It’s a wholesale mess – anarchy and chaos. Who is responsible and how do we vote them out?

Julian Tominey

Address supplied

https://www.advertiserandtimes.co.uk/people/readers-letters-anarchy-of-road-closures-9447762/

[David9694]

wtjs wrote:

TBH it sounds to me that the hooded men running from the car were probably on their way to the nearest police station to report the incident. One of them probably took the number plate to help remember his registration number

You are a traffic officer with Lancashire Constabulary and ICMFP

was thinking, Lancs Police Traffic Officer sounds like he would be worth trying as a regular spot on an existing crime themed show.  He would be given a set of pretty incriminating facts and would frame as entirely innocent and normal, as you’ve just done. 

[chrisonabike]

wtjs wrote:

wtjs wrote:

We must hope there are no shoddy ‘plea bargain’ offers to this ‘kill and run’ out-and-out villain. It shows the state of traffic law in the UK that it’s not inconceivable!

OTOH those charged don’t have “good Kentish names” so they may have been given less benefit of doubt than apparently local bad drivers… (see “but they were not high, drunk or going double the speed limit / are the director of a large company and thus clearly of good character – so it was obviously a tragic accident”)

[wtjs]

We must hope there are no
We must hope there are no shoddy ‘plea bargain’ offers to this ‘kill and run’ out-and-out villain. It shows the state of traffic law in the UK that it’s not inconceivable!

[chrisonabike]

Update in the case of the man
Update in the case of the man killed and carried a mile on the car – charges brought:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c87rgyyx53ro

[Mr Blackbird]

Don’t forget, it will be
Don’t forget, it will be spring in a couple of months and he will have to drive upstream to spawn. A ban would have prevented this.

[chrisonabike]

David9694 wrote:

David9694 wrote:

Funny how there’s always the vulnerable entourage who rely exclusively on Mr Whoopsie here.

Probably these chaps (and so often they seem to be) are as careful with the contraception as they are with the accelerator pedal.

[David9694]

Funny how there’s always the

Funny how there’s always the vulnerable entourage who rely exclusively on Mr Whoopsie here.

[chrisonabike]

Another driver with max
Another driver with max points, another exceptional hardship get-out.

BBC wrote:

EastEnders and James Bond actor Colin Salmon has said he is “genuinely grateful” for the “compassion” he was shown by a court after he avoided a driving ban for speeding.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0k34yy454o

BBC wrote:

Salmon already had nine points on his licence and received three more for travelling at 24mph in a 20mph zone in London last March.

That would usually trigger an automatic six-month disqualification from driving, but Salmon avoided a ban, partly because he cares for his seriously ill wife and daughter and drives them to medical appointments.

So that’s OK, because he’s not driving for himself, you see?

[chrisonabike]

David9694 wrote:

David9694 wrote:

https://oxfordclarion.uk/twelve-easy-hacks-to-beat-oxfords-congestion-charge-2/

This article (and my previous reading of the regs) really shows that charges are applied to a very narrow category of journeys / vehicles! Talk about laser microsurgery!

… But no doubt the “trapped in our homes” / “our Magna Carta rights” (?) folks will use a handful of special cases to argue that therefore everyone should be able to drive through town as fast as they like and clog the roads if necessary… (Almost certainly making it just as hard for those they proport to be helping – “selective concern” at work).

Coincidentally Ranty Highwayman has an article looking at the history of trying (and failing, and trying again) to deal with the growth of motoring in East Oxford. He notes that though the decades change, the objections and lopsided “*you* prove it won’t make driving less convenient for me” demands of the antis are essentially unchanged.

https://therantyhighwayman.blogspot.com/2025/12/back-to-future-in-east-oxford.html

[David9694]

Oxford’s high street booming,

Oxford’s high street booming, bucking national trend

No, Mr property analyst the correct line is that Oxford is a retail desert, teachers don’t want to teach, traders don’t want to trade and so on.

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/25732270.oxfords-high-street-booming-bucking-national-trend/

Breezy piece here on how it works and if they are managing to hold all this together in the face of criticism, evasion, and even sabotage that’s quite an achievement:

https://oxfordclarion.uk/twelve-easy-hacks-to-beat-oxfords-congestion-charge-2/

Boom! 

[David9694]

Happy new year all.  This one

Happy new year all.  This one is for the “great timesaver you’ve got there” file: 

End of park and ride to hospital that’s ‘impossible to park at’ will cause ‘chaos’

NHS staff say plans to end the park and ride at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff will cause chaos

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/end-park-ride-hospital-thats-33145283

 

[Backladder]

Mr Blackbird wrote:

Mr Blackbird wrote:

 Groups of hooded men driving cars seem to get an unfair bad press.

Especially while some on here are promoting helmets for drivers, a thick woolen hood is at least an effort to protect their head even if it does not conform to BS EN 1078.

[wtjs]

TBH it sounds to me that the

TBH it sounds to me that the hooded men running from the car were probably on their way to the nearest police station to report the incident. One of them probably took the number plate to help remember his registration number

You are a traffic officer with Lancashire Constabulary and ICMFP

[Mr Blackbird]

TBH it sounds to me that the
TBH it sounds to me that the hooded men running from the car were almost certainly on their way to the nearest police station to report the incident. One of them probably took the number plate to help remember his registration number.
Groups of hooded men driving cars seem to get an unfair bad press.
And don’t forget that they may have been slightly late on the school run or on their way to an important business meeting.
And, as they were wearing hoodies etc, we can be confident that they aren’t the sort of perverted scum that would go on naked bike rides.

[Author]

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