Politician beware!

In my last post, I had bleeding-heart liberals, Ian Brady and the officials at Ashworth high security hospital in my sights. Today, it's the turn of the godforsaken City and County Of Swansea. I assume the council is responsible for the mayhem and madness affecting Swansea's roads at the moment?

I refer, of course, to the chaotic, desperately mismanaged roadworks currently taking place on Oystermouth Road. Surely, it would make sense to carry out major excavation and reconstruction of such an essential artery, at night? Who is the fool who greenlit this project? Because of his green light, we're all merrily stuck behind red lights, in traffic queues so extensive, that by the time we get our green light, we can only move a couple of metres, before the red light is with us again.

Public transport is chaotic, as the bus lane which sweeps from the Quadrant's Garden Tunnel, up to Princess Way, is closed. Surely it would make sense to keep the bus lane open? I've seen bus queues so huge along the tunnel, that other buses have to remain on their stands, as there is no room for them to join the queue,

And what about people who rely on taxis to get them from A to B? I normally pay £2.50 for a taxi home from Tesco with my weekly shop. Today, it cost me £3.90. The taxi driver informed me that customers heading for places like Port Tennant, who normally pay £3.50-£4.00, are paying £8.00-9.00 because of the delays.

Did the council think only Oystermouth Road would be affected? Well, it's not: most roads into town are now congested, with people trying to avoid the main logjam on Oystermouth Road. I simply cannot understand why this work cannot be done at night. Other European countries tend to carry out such major works at night, to minimise disruption. Much of our motorway maintenance is also carried out at night. But, for some reason, the council is determined to make the people of Swansea suffer.

To me, the situation regarding Oystermouth is simply intolerable. But I'm just one person and there's nothing I can do about it by myself. If an organised protest was made to the council, it might persuade them to restrict these roadworks to the night time. Or if it is impractical to restrict them totally to the night time, they may decide to carry out the most disruptive aspects at night. However, as I have said before [and make no apology for doing so again], this city is apathetic, and accepts almost any heap of bureaucratic detritus the council chooses to hurl at us. [A prime example would be the granting of planning permission for a hideous and unnecessary skyscraper on the seafront]. So how about it, people? How about filling the council's mailbags with thousands of requests that these roadworks be rescheduled to take place at night? Prove me wrong about how apathetic this city is, I dare you.