ABD Local Co-ordinator: email   

 


2009-09-04
Another Council Cockup
This absurd cycle lane recently appeared at the junction of the A632 and Cemetary Lane, Chesterfield.
Only later, after this photo was taken, did the council impose a left turn ban from the A632 which at least went some way towards explaining the stupid cycle lane — but why didn't they impose the turn ban at the same time as they built the cycle lane???
It transpires that the reason for all this is because some residents naively demanded some kind of traffic control but didn't explain why, and the council decided to do this. In fact the problem was simply cars parking both sides of the road.
The moral of this story is: if you have any problem in your road, whatever you do don't ask the council to do anything, because they will immediately seize upon any such request as an excuse to waste more public money by imposing some kind of irrelevant politically correct nonsense upon the road.
 
 
2009-04-29
Now You See Him — Now You Don't

This photo shows one of Derbyshire Safety Camera Team's vans clearly marked in police livery. It is taken from their own website, date not specified.
This photo taken in April 2009 shows the same van with all the livery painted over in a boring shade of green. We're only surprised they haven't used army camouflage.
We think the registration number is
FN02 NVZ
 
If you spot this van do stop somewhere legal and safe (otherwise they'll have you for that to) and take a photo — they don't like you photographing them.
 

2008-08-28
Unmarked Speed Camera Vans
YouTube — Unmarked Speed Camera Van on A57
Daily Telegraph — Council installs secret speed cameras against Government guidance
 
2008-05-09
Support for East Midlands Congestion Charging Falls Apart
Following the May 2008 council elections the former leader of the Tory / Labour powering sharing council has now conceded that the idea of charging people £2.00 to drive into the centre of Derby isn t popular and that the council are effectively withdrawing their support for the scheme. This leaves the whole project in doubt as it depended upon agreement by the 3 city unitary authorities (Derby, Nottingham and Leicester) as well as support from the respective county councils.
 
The proposals were already dealt a blow last week after the election when Brian Lucas, Member for Environmental Services at Derbyshire County Council, expressed views that people living just outside the charging zone (and Derbyshire County Council voters) would be hardest hit.
 
Hopefully this spells the end of this fiasco and that congestion charging for the East Midlands will be finally dead and buried. It`s just a shame that all the money spent so far on research and feasibility studies could have been invested into the transport system rather than being wasted on a project that has been unpopular from the start.
 

£2 Tax to Enter Derby?
£2 coinThe supposedly democratically elected politicians who run Derby have decided that you want to pay £2 to drive into the city. Sign the petition right to convince them otherwise, and take the time to write to your local councillor and tell him or her whether they will be getting your vote next time if they support this tax.
 
2007-09-26
A515 50 Limit Insanity
Derbyshire County Council plan are to go ahead with a plan to reduce the speed limit on almost the entire length of the A515 from Buxton via Ashbourne to Sudbury from NSL (60) to 50 mph, except where it is already lower. In addition some existing 30 and 40 limits will be extended — no prizes for guessing which way.
 
Download a PDF of the proposals with maps (1Mb)
 
This is a superb driving road and, while the quality does vary, it contains some of the straightest and best-aligned sections of single carriageway rural A-road in the country. Reducing this entire road to a 50mph limit is a total absurdity, and symptomatic of the council's fanatical and irrational obsession with reducing speed limits.
 
Despite the proposals being opposed by Derbyshire Police who pointed out that not only are the reductions unnecessary, they are also unenforcable, the bloody-minded social engineers who run the county council are going ahead anyway.
 
Write to your local councillor and demand that this madness is stopped.
 
 
2007-01-11
Congestion Charging Debate

ABD spokesman Mark McArthur-Christie interviewed during the BBC debate on congestion charging in the East Midlands.
ABD spokesman Mark McArthur-Christie appeared in a debate on road pricing by BBC East Midlands on Thursday 11th January 2007.
The debate was broadcast on BBC Radio Derby, Leicester, and Nottingham; with live video over the internet.
In a BBC website poll, 1315 of 1480 people (89%) said they would not be prepared to pay anything per mile.
The programme also described a British Chambers of Commerce survey showing that amongst businesses: The 6 East Midlands councils involved said that they would not go ahead with road pricing unless it was done nationally, as to do so locally would disadvantage the area.
 
 

A time-operated 20mph speed limit near a school in South Normanton. The ABD fully supports such measures at times when children are about, but does not support permanent 20mph limits as they are unnecessary 97% of the time.
 
Tolls across Peak District?
Derbyshire County Council want to deter tourism and destroy rural businesses by imposing a congestion charge across the Peak District National Park. The absurd money-grabbing plan was left out of the first round of congestion charge proposals but may re-appear in phase 2.
 
 
Chesterfield Residents Protest Over Humps
9000 people have signed a petition against speed humps in Chesterfield, complaining against delays to emergency vehicles, damage to cars and pain for those suffering from back injuries. The petition is to be handed to Derbyshire County Council — so far so good. Except it is to be handed to a councillor with the barmy title of 'cabinet member for sustainable communities'. Oh dear. Anybody remember when we had local councillors who represented the people instead of living in some cloud-cuckoo land of politically-correct claptrap?

A6 Taddington
Police enforcement of the 50mph speed limit on the A6 at Taddington may have been illegal. The single carriageway section at the north-western end of the bypass has been reduced from NSLA(60) to an unnecessary 50mph. Speed limit signs have often been obscured by foliage. Talivans frequently lurked in a lay-by waiting to catch drivers who would assume the speed limit to be 60mph.
After one driver spent 12 months challenging the speed limit, the police quietly dropped the charge and the talivans are no longer to be seen. If you have previously been caught and fined here we advise you to seek legal advice.
 

 
 
One Rule For Them, Another Rule For Us
In 2004, 59 Derbyshire Police cars caught exceeding the speed limit by speed cameras whilst not using blue lights were let off. Chief Hypocrite
The Chief Constable of Derbyshire Police was recently stopped whilst being driven at 97mph on the M1. He claims to support the government's "speed kills" propaganda, but obviously doesn't believe it any more than we do. One Rule For Them, Another Rule For Us
Milton Crosdale of Littleover was caught doing 37mph in a 30mph zone. He already had 9 points on his licence. He was fined £100 and banned for 6 months.
Jeremy Lowe of Tansley was caught doing 37mph in a 30mph zone. He already had 9 points on his licence. He was fined £60 and let off.
If you can spot the discrepancy here please do not apply to be a magistrate, you'd be no good at the job.
Mr Crosdale is director of Nottingham & District Racial Equality Council, director of Nottinghamshire Learning and Skills Council, and a deacon at a Baptist church.
So what does Mr Lowe do that allowed such preferential treatment? — He is a Detective Inspector with Derbyshire Police.
And they wonder why the public don't support speed cameras. Mr Crosdale was caught on Osmaston Road in Derby. He stated in court that he believed the road had a 40mph speed limit. From it's appearance this is indeed the assumption that anyone with reasonable judgement would make. The problem of course is that councils no longer impose reasonable speed limits, giving the speed camera partnerships the excuse to mug safe drivers and deprive them of their licences.
 
 
Driver Jailed for 38mph
62 year-old Ernie Harbon of South Normanton has been jailed for two weeks. His crime? Doing 38 mph in a 30mph limit on the A6007 in Codnor that he states was not clearly marked, and is an open road surrounded by fields. Mr Harbon refused to pay a fine of £400 and refused to send his licence to the DVLA.
The DVLA then wrote to him suspending his licence, however, the conniving bureaucrats informed the local police before the letter reached him, and the police tried to catch him driving while disqualified. He counted 18 (yes, eighteen) police cars travelling along his road — presumably some of them were the same vehicles coming round again — in an attempt to catch him, but they failed.
Criminals meanwhile, get off scot-free. But the powers that be are fools to think they have won by sending Ernie to jail, he reported that both fellow inmates and prison staff treated him like a celebrity, and motorists went up to him to offer support.
Fatalities
  59
 62
 61
 73
 66
 60
 64
 45
 61
 63
  
  1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003  

Serious Injuries
  504
 761
 760
 749
 712
 690
 664
 671
 673
 ?
  
  1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003  

Slight Injuries
  4534
 4218
 4318
 4786
 4694
 4769
 4593
 4501
 4605
 ?
  
  1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003  
Source: National Statistics — Road Casualties in Great Britain
2003 Fatalities: Derbyshire Police
Scamera Failure
The graphs on the right show road traffic accident history in three categories over the last ten years. Derbyshire Safety Camera Pratnership began operating in October 2001. That year there were an usually low number of fatalities, the following year levels went back in line with previous years.
Serious injuries increased marginally in 2002, and slight injuries increased by over a hundred.
Since the camera partnership began operating, all categories of casualties have increased.
 
 
County Council lie about accidents
Shirebrook town councillors have slammed Derbyshire County Council after they claimed speed cameras were needed on Portland Road because of four serious accidents. Details subsequently obtained by the town councillors showed that the accidents had actually occurred on other roads.
Traffic Census Chaos
In Autumn 2003 Derby City Council caused chaos by carrying out traffic censuses on main roads during rush hour. To add insult to injury, drivers just knew that in the current political climate, whatever information they collected would be used to justify yet more anti-car measures.
These are the facts about censuses carried out on the road:
So we suggest that if you wish to protest at any delay, you refuse to answer their silly questions and put a stop to this malicious obstruction of the public highway.
Read the Council's excuses.
The City Council abandoned the censuses early because of a flood of complaints from the public.
 
 

Despite only serving a handful of houses and farms and car parks used by people visiting the Peak District, the entirely rural Derwent Valley road already suffers from an excessive number of signs, a 40mph speed limit, a 2 mile 24 hour clearway, and countless no parking signs.

The northern part of road is already restricted at weekends and bank holidays to access and disabled drivers only. Whilst this part of the road is narrower, cars can pass with care, however, it clear those who maintain it have never been to Scotland and so never heard of passing places.
Upper Derwent Valley Toll Road Plan
Derbyshire County Council wants to impose 18th Century style tolls on the Upper Derwent Valley road (see photos). This is an unclassified no through road situated beside Ladybower Reservoir just off the A57 between Manchester and Sheffield. (Map). Used mainly by people wishing to enjoy the countryside, this road gives Derbyshire County Council the ideal opportunity to impose taxes on people who don't even live in the county, and so cannot vote against the councillors who approve the plan. To avoid alienating local residents, the toll will only be imposed at weekends and bank holidays.
At the present time, we understand that the plans are on hold because Severn Trent Water, which owns the land in the Upper Derwent Valley and the car park at the end of it, has sensibly refused to tarnish it's public image by allowing itself to be consumed by the council's anti-car hysteria.
Read the council reaction to being shunned by Severn Trent.
As is typical of councils these days, the only solution proposed to the problem of occasional congestion is taxation and restriction. They don't seem to have given alternative solutions a moments thought.
 
 
SPITS — South Pennine Integrated Transport Strategy
An entirely suitable acronym for a conspiracy between the government, local authorities, profiteering bus companies, the unelected national park quango, and anti-car protagonists 'Transport 2000'; which is planning to impose anti-car measures across a massive area of Derbyshire.
Further details of their plans can be found on their website: SPITS
 
 
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