Forum Topic

Grant Shapps

Discussing LTNs on LBC this morning.  Suggests they should be removed where they’re not working. Residents should be in favour. There is no longer the socialrequirements that was used to bring them in.  Interesting stuff

Maggie Dodge ● 1428d47 Comments

Of course trey should be removed. They are a failed experiment and cause increased pollution. They benefit a few to the detriment of millions of people across London.

Steve Taylor ● 1428d

Is this the same Grant Shapps who wanted number plates on bikes recently u-turned so quickly it even spun Liz Truss's head? I expect a lot of red meat to be thrown about in the next few weeks after the absolute disaster we have seen over the past month so im really not suprised to hear his comment on LTN's.

Matthew Swain ● 1428d

Hopefully we will get a Transport Secretary who will make it mandatory for cyclists to have registration plates so that the millions who break the law can be prosecuted.  The fines would boost the coffers for the treasury by millions.

Steve Taylor ● 1428d

As always, those who suggest that cyclists should have registration plates fail to explain how a plate large enough to be read from more than a few feet away could be fitted to a pedal cycle.

Richard Greenhough ● 1427d

Shapps is just distancing himself from Johnson's pro-LTN and pro-bike policies, as he did in August. Hoping to get a job under Sunak.

Paul Scullion ● 1427d

He was the minister who gave councils the money to install LTNs in the first place.

Roger Talbot ● 1427d

Roger - I think that was the very point that Maggie was making, highlighting Shapps' ability to manoeuvre at speed, regardless of the truth.

Phil Kay ● 1427d

Well they expect motorists to read a board  with a huge amount of info on traffic restrictions, don’t care how we manage it.  So I’d say it’s not my problem, just sort it and stop making excuses!!

Maggie Dodge ● 1427d

Is this the same Grant Shapps who spent a couple of weeks slagging off Truss only to accept a cabinet position from her at the first offer, not one of them has the slightest integrity.

Vanessa Smith ● 1427d

They don’t even have to be registration plates. They could be bar coded or even tagged. It’s easy enough to tag criminals so why can’t cyclists be tagged? 

Steve Taylor ● 1427d

Bit rich coming from you who slag people off on this forum 😂😂😂😂

Jayne Thorburn ● 1427d

So you defend these shenanigans then?

Vanessa Smith ● 1427d

I can just see people walking around pointing bar code readers at passing cyclists (not).

Richard Greenhough ● 1427d

It’s the police who will be checking with the help of cameras and dash cams. of course. Reg plates are being discussed and of course it’s possible. I think they’ll be. Coming soon. You just don’t want to be accountable .

Maggie Dodge ● 1427d

Can you name any country where they have successfully required pedal cycles to have number plates ?

Richard Greenhough ● 1427d

Oh dear, Jane, glass houses - or tin pots.  You are one of the biggest slagger-offers on here.

Claire Moran ● 1427d

You win that competition, hands down.

Stewart Jones ● 1427d

This forum is full of people slagging each other off, it’s what we do.

Maggie Dodge ● 1427d

North Korea I think you’ll find. Reminds me of Chiswick actually “Would-be owners are required to pass a road safety test at their local police station, and every bicycle requires a licence plate – a metal tag showing where it was registered, along with a registration number, that is displayed at the front.”

Maggie Dodge ● 1427d

Grant Shapps has said from the very beginning of the LTN debacle that they should only be introduced if supported by residents. This vital instruction has been consistently ignored by TfL and of course the Hounslow Council "team". All across London LTNs have been removed by contrite councils responding to public anger - but not in Hounslow.

Sam Hearn ● 1427d

Remind me someone, where is the money from these fines going.  How is it being spent?

Maggie Dodge ● 1427d

https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/03/lost-decade-hidden-story-how-austerity-broke-britain

Philippa Bond ● 1427d

I always think if anyone resorts to derogatory remarks, they instantly losethe debate and show themselves up.

Janice Evans ● 1426d

The money from fines goes into a ring-fenced budget that the Council can only spend on transport/traffic related cost headings. Any surplus goes to fund the Freedom Pass.You are right to ask the question and we should be demanding full transparency. Those requesting FOIs are eventually provided with massive spreadsheets that they themselves then have to sort

Sam Hearn ● 1426d

"You win that competition, hands down."If it goes to a vote, mine would be for Vanessa.

Richard Greenhough ● 1426d

"The money from fines goes into a ring-fenced budget that the Council can only spend on transport/traffic related cost headings."With an austerity package looming, the government could change that. The money should go to the treasury rather than badly run Labour Councils.

Steve Taylor ● 1424d

Works very well in North Korea, with death penalty for jumping red lights.

Davey Harris ● 1424d

There often is a death penalty for jumping red lights we don't need to go to North Korea.

Philippa Bond ● 1424d

The death penalty would be taking it a bit far but life without parole would do the trick. I guess North Korea prefer the cheaper option!

Steve Taylor ● 1424d

The Council should not be allowed to introduce these roads schemes and then benefit from the proceeds.  It’s a conflict of interest in the same way having the cycle lobby in charge of Traffic. It’s lunacy to thinkThey can be trusted to mane the rules up fairly

Maggie Dodge ● 1424d

If Councils were properly funded they wouldn't have to rely on traffic fines to help them out. At least the money has to go on 'traffic' and road improvements, including Freedom Passes.

Peter Evans ● 1424d

Sending the money to the Treasury would be even worse!

Philippa Bond ● 1424d

Don’t know how much goes on Freedom Passed but I’m not seeing millions of pounds worth of road improvements, just more road closures and cycle infrastructure

Maggie Dodge ● 1424d

Oh how delicious, I mean awful, it would be if law-breaking drivers were funding more pensioners to use public transport for free in London instead of burning money and fossil fuels on driving as well as more cycle lanes and LTNs .... Actually that's just perfect really: the worst and least attentive drivers funding reductions in private car use.

Paul Campbell ● 1424d

This from London Councils website:"In 2016/17, the Freedom Pass cost London boroughs £355 million.  However, much of this cost is raised from parking revenue – both charges and penalties.  This means that motorists are effectively subsidising the provisions that allow older and disabled people to get about London.  £155 million of parking surplus was used to fund the Freedom Pass in 2016/17 which amounts to 44% of the total required funding for the service. This funding was provided by 20 different boroughs, with the boroughs of Brent, Greenwich, Hackney, Harrow, Hounslow, Merton and Tower Hamlets allocating their entire 2016/17 parking surplus to the scheme.  Theoretically, if all parking surplus was hypothecated to funding the Freedom Pass, it would do so entirely, and there would still be around £6.6 million left over for other uses."So we rely on traffic breaking the rules and getting fined!

Peter Evans ● 1424d

I wouldn't worry about it Peter. Law-breaking motorists are so numerous and frequent that they represent a totally reliable and never-ending source of funding. Like nuclear fusion for freedom passes.

Paul Campbell ● 1424d

Many pensioners are unable to use transport if it's free or not.

Janice Evans ● 1424d

Many pensioners are able to use public transport but choose to use cars instead for personal convenience and clog up the roads causing inconvenience for those who need to use cars.

Paul Campbell ● 1424d

Don't believe that to be true, accessing transport has been made moredifficult for many elderly people who otherwise would have used it.

Janice Evans ● 1424d

I have found that as I've got older I try not to use my car so much and in fact I am getting rid of it. However, we will still have a car which we need for the weekly shop (for four adults) and also to visit friends most of whom live too far away to visit on public transport. Yes, that's convenient so what? The thing is none of us ever think that one day we will be older and then all of a sudden we are! As for clogging up the roads given Hounslow Council's predilection for plastering  blasted (mostly unused) cycle lanes everywhere which reduce the road space available for cars and buses thereby clogging the roads up - us oldies probably come a poor second.

Vanessa Smith ● 1424d

Still feeling the need to explain why you have a car.  I've yet to hear Paul Campbell explain why he has, by all accounts, a large car.

Maggie Dodge ● 1424d

"..choose to use cars instead for personal convenience and clog up the roads causing inconvenience for those who need to use cars"Perhaps you could define uses of cars that are not for personal convenience ? And I don't mean delivery vans.

Richard Greenhough ● 1423d

"I've yet to hear Paul Campbell explain why he has, by all accounts, a large car."To carry skiing gear?

Francis Rowe ● 1423d

If he uses a large car to carry stuff for leisure activities he is just utilising a vehicle for sports. Is there a three letter abbreviation for that kind of transport?

Anita Blake ● 1423d

Oh when he flies on holiday, yes , forgot about that

Maggie Dodge ● 1423d

Must be something to do with being called Paul. There is another 'Paul' a blinkered advocate of cycling on the Ealing forum who damns those who drive and has a mantra of 'too many cars' while admitting that he regularly drives when more convenient.Don't you just love a hypocrite?

N V Brooks ● 1423d

What’s the name of these pensioners, what w ti iTunes are they using these vehicles for, I’ll send someone  round, by bike, to have a stiff word. Unless it’s your parents in which case you can speak to them

Maggie Dodge ● 1423d