Express & Star

Mark Andrews on Saturday: Are we being taken for a ride with £256 million cycle lanes?

Read today's column from Mark Andrews

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Do we need to spend £256 million on cycle lanes?

DID you think the West Midlands Combined Authority, with its associated mayor and army of bureaucrats, a complete waste of money? A shotgun marriage between areas with little in common, let alone any sense of cohesion?

Well, here’s something that will make you think again. The organisation is now looking at spending £256 million – yes £256 million – of taxpayers’ money on 26 cycle lanes around the region.

An eye-watering £20 million is proposed for bike routes along the busy Wednesfield Road in Wolverhampton, which is already a dog’s dinner of bus lanes. A further £13.7 million could be spent linking Old Hill with Halesowen. How about a £22 million cycle lane along the Birmingham New Road from Wolverhampton to Dudley? Would be rude not to, wouldn’t it?

In some areas it will mean 20mph speed limits being introduced, in others new sections of road will be built to separate motorists from the cyclists.

Has anybody stopped to consider the disruption that this is going to bring to some of our busiest commuter roads? And have the brains behind this scheme never stopped to look at all the existing cycle lanes around the Black Country, which spend most of their time unused?

Imagine what could be done with £256 million invested wisely in the West Midlands’ transport system. Think of all the potholes that could be filled, the junctions that could be improved. I’m pretty sure that allowing traffic to flow more freely would do more to improve air quality than painting a few lines on the carriageway.

Or how about putting £256 million towards the cost of reopening the Walsall-Dudley-Stourbridge railway line, which we keep being told is too expensive, and that we should settle for a tram line to the Merry Hill centre instead?

If people want to ride their bike to work, that’s fine, I’m a broad-minded sort of guy. But for most of us it’s just not an option, and no amount of hectoring ¬– or public spending – is going to change that

JULLIAN Preston-Powers, a cafe manager from Hove, near Brighton has been dubbed ‘Britain’s worst boss’ after saying he ‘cannot ever manage to hire British due to poor worth ethics’, and that the ‘very poorest type of employee is a British one, full stop'.

As a dyed-in-the-wool patriot ¬¬¬- and a British worker ¬- it pains me to say this. But I fear he may be right.

Not all British workers of course, probably not even very many. But for all Mr Preston-Powers’ Basil Fawlty style bluster, I suspect he does have a point.

The subject of his rage was 22-year-old Victoria Atkins, who had been offered a trial at Mr Preston-Powers’ cafe. Two hours after her shift was due to start, Miss Atkins had still not shown up. Instead she sent a text message asking to come in on a different day ¬- because it had been raining.

Talk about a fair-weather worker.

When Mr Preston-Powers pointed out that one of his employees had not missed a shift in three years, Miss Atkins replied that was ‘not normal’.