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Council sorry over tailbacks
Friday 19th June 2009, 10:25AM BST.
Highways officials who caused massive tailbacks on one of Shropshire’s busiest roads today told drivers caught up in the chaos: “We’re sorry.”
Shropshire Council admitted they had made mistakes over a traffic census on the A5 just outside Shrewsbury which saw motorists caught in tailbacks of up to six miles.
And they vowed to learn lessons after the 12-hour study led to floods of complaints.
Even the county’s top judge Robin Onions waded into the row and raised concerns about the problems caused.
The survey was carried out to provide data for Shrewsbury’s proposed £100 million North West Relief Road.
Shropshire Council apologised to people caught up in delays because of the scheme, which saw part of one westbound lane of the A5 coned off while officials carried out a survey in the lay-by near Preston Island.
Martin Allard, head of strategic highways and traffic at the authority, said: “Clearly we caused some major delays and disruption to people yesterday for which we do apologise.
“If we were, some time in the future, to do a similar sort of study again we really have got to see what lessons we can learn from yesterday.”
He said about 45 calls had been received about the survey yesterday and said a similar study would not be needed for the foreseeable future.
Judge Onions said two jurors were late for court, a recorder estimated he was stuck in a four-mile traffic tailback and members of counsel were also hampered by the study yesterday
And he estimated an hour’s worth of work was lost because of the delays and questioned why he was not warned it would be happening.
He said: “Nobody knew about this or I would have been able to warn people.
“Has anybody looking into the benefits of this study, looked at the cost to people of being delayed, stuck in traffic, missing appointments and turning up late?”
Phil Crossland, Shropshire Council’s assistant director for transport and highways, said exact details could not have been revealed in advance because the data would not have been a true reflection as drivers would have used alternative routes.
By John Kirk
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what an absolute joke!I know it needs doing and the argument about not telling anyone is valid for a true reflection on the sample but a “we’re sorry” in the local paper just isn’t good enough – pupils from our school missed a county tennis final competition at the Welti centre as we were coming from Telfod direction – how to you explain to these 12 yr olds that this was a vaild experiment as they have missed out here – such stupidity sums up why relationships with the public are so bad between the council – how could they not have expected it to cause such a mess – ignorance!!
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Yet another example of how Shropshire Council will be proceeding in its affairs.
When they don’t realise that ‘mistakes’ were made until a day after the event (and when everyone else is TELLING them they’ve made a mistake), you really do dispair at some of the morons that must be employed as managers.
They can’t run an election count properly. They blame a ‘surge’ in applications for delays in dealing with planning issues. And now this.
What’s next?
I knew the wheels would come off the unitary authority eventually, but I didn’t think they’d come off as soon as they have done!
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Surely a half-wit whould have realised that to to reduce the traffic flow to one lane on that stretch would have caused problems – god knows there are enough accidents and road works on that stretch for the problems caused by such an event to be well known!!! I only went that way for a specific reason and due to the tail-back I got into Shrewsbury too late anyway so missed my appointment – which I still had to pay for and had the added cost of my wasted extra fuel and we all know that that isn’t cheap nowadays!!! I don’t think that a “sorry” is good enough. The muppet who arranged it should face some tougher questions!!!
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They set up a census that involved stopping large numbers of motorists on a busy road over a 12 hour period, and then found themselves having caused a six mile tailback.
What on earth did they think might happen?
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Having been caught in this mess and it causing me to be late for a job interview, saying sorry is not good enough, it just shows how out of touch with reality the person or persons responsible for this are. It does not take a very bright person to realise that channeling two lanes of traffic into one and randomly stopping motorists is going to cause chaos, but there again, being not very bright is probably a mandatory requirement for a senior job with the council
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… and, of course, the council and Highways officials who had the ‘need to know’ about this activity, and who normally travel to work on affected part of the A5, made their journey as usual so as not to invalidate the census. As if!
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Aren’t the council terrible… yeah course they are! blah….blah…blah.
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It would be interesting to know if any internal notification was given to council staff thus allowing them to avoid the snarl up.
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No notification was given to council staff. I have friends who work for the council also caught up in the long tailback and were late for work etc.
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As we crawled along for however many miles it was, we did travel under two bridges upon which were sat staff and vehicles belonging to Mouchel, assisting with the census. Why didn’t they or even the driver of an ambulance (on a blue light)report the size of the massive queue to the three policemen stood at the census area? My only crumb of comfort was that at least it wasn’t me in the ambulance & I only hope the delay had no impact on the occupant.
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What arrogance from the council ! For them to think that it is ok to deliberately cause the people of Shropshire and elsewhere such inconvienice and cost. The person authorising this fiasco should be asked to resign.
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Telblu…..presumably from your comment you work for the council, (although I’m sure you won’t admit it…)?
Rather than wasting a sentence writing such an inane comment, perhaps you’d like to elaborate as to why – perhaps – there is another side to the story to consider, and perhaps put the council’s perspective?
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sack them all that is a joke
i guess they will now say their scientifically valid survey has proved there’s congestion in shrewsbury which they wanted all along to justify this horrid road
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eu beurocrats at shire hall should all be sacked to cut my taxes now
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whats wrong with a postal survey ???
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