Yes, it's really silly. And as the national living wage has increased it has ironically affected more people, even just with pension contributions before they can even think of C2W.

It would be much fairer to provide grants for cycles that anyone can access.

Many people in full-time work can't use the scheme too because of the silly rules about salary sacrifice: you have to earn national living wage after the deductions (and your pension deductions). That needs quite a food salary.

Another reason to reform the scheme rather than introduce a silly cap.

The car club in Norwich definitely gets special treatment with where the designated bays are. And whilst it may work in your home city where you're all signed up and know the system what happens when you visit somewhere else?

Interestingly the taxis here are generally well-driven too though.

They can help people avoid owning cars altogether though, by covering odd occasions when one is useful, which has a lot of benefits. It's a bit like a car club but with somebody else doing the driving.

Yes but you can tackle that by rules about the kind of bikes people can buy rather than the value, so a £7k cargo cycle that can carry two children and shopping would be allowed but a £7k carbon fibre racing bike totally impractical for commuting would not.

Or compared to fuel duty cuts and freezes, which benefit affluent people who drive more in bigger cars.

Bizarrely eco subsidies seem to get more bad feeling for not being as progressive as we'd like than subsidies for polluting things.

And amazingly some people will drive miles and miles to reach a leisure activity and feel that this journey is somehow more important than somebody riding a cycle for leisure, because they are "trying to get somewhere" and the cyclist is just out enjoying themselves.

Things like the energy price cap and fuel duty cuts/subsidies can also disproportionately benefit the "middle class" because they use more fuel and energy. It seems there is much more anger when Green policies aren't as progressive as we'd like than there is with polluting policies.

And the techno fixes don't even work with domestic gas boilers, so even if we get limitless clean nuclear power, we'll still need to electrify domestic heating.

A similar thing to me is saying "We want people to be able to drive when they need to but have the choice to cycle when they can." So many good cycling advocates still talk about driving as a "need" and cycling as a "choice" when it can often be the only realistic option for people.

And there are practical reasons as well as financial ones some people can't have a car/drive such as parking, all the maintenance and documentation to arrange, and being able to even access the places you need to (e.g. narrow roads and paths).

What we really need in the world is "AI peas with added protein."

Probably added pea protein 😉

One small mercy is that Land Rover have at least made them relatively rounded. The motorcycle equivalent, the BMW GS, has big square section aluminium panniers to add on with very nasty looking corners and even nastier looking hooks to strap stuff on with, but a nice rounded cutout for the exhaust.

It's to resemble racks that used to bolt to the sides of old Defenders and "Series" Land Rovers (forerunner to them) to carry extra fuel cans etc. on expeditions across deserts etc.

It depends on the trip, but always involves coffee. And I'd never tour on a bike I couldn't ride to work on. In fact, there is something nice about going away on your day-to-day workhorse bike.

I grew up in the very, very Consetvative Salisbury and it had a blanket 20 limit across the whole centre by 2003. It often amuses me when new 20 limits are now considered woke and leftist.

This is why I found the car-brained objections to the new HC so remarkable. It was basically applying "traffic on the major toad gets priority" regardless of travel mode.

That's cool. I was just impressed enough that Dutch crossings had a big pad you could nudge with your elbow to activate them rather than poking a little button (not great for accessibility or when carrying heavy bags). And they didn't make you wait again to cross the second side of the road.

That's not the full cost by any means though: Breckland are giving them a ready-built freehold car park. The actual overall costs would be massively more, especially when you include opportunity costs e.g. not being able to build housing, businesses, or anything there.

The phrase they need is "Is that a Brompton? I've been thinking of getting one myself." It will all flow from there.

We so need these in Norwich.

I'd settle for when they stopped spending money on miles of armaco barriers to stop drivers crashing into each other or inanimate objects 😉

It removes the easy planning objection of "not enough parking" is what they really mean. Which gets used almost universally because it is basically impossible to build sensible, livable housing with enough parking if everyone drives everywhere.

Household waste bins: when and how councils may issue fixed penalties How and when local authorities can and cannot use fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for householders not complying with waste receptacle requirements.

It's actually illegal already to leave your bin out in a way that obstructs the pavement, or to leave them out long after collection. Councils can issue penalties, albeit through a long process (www.gov.uk/guidance/hou...).

Of course many of us are concerned about both.

It's also ironic how many residential roads (including mine) have loads of car parking spaces built but not even a single bike rack, let alone hangers.

Yet there are those who make a fuss about people putting a small wooden shed in front of their home to store bicycle on "heritage" and "conservation" grounds.

I can't believe I didn't think of it like that, but I guess it was Friday evening.

The key is being able to see each parked bike individually on the cctv though. If you have to look for someone leaving the parking area with the bike it doesn't work. And getting the footage is only the start.

It shouldn't even need AI: if you can see the individual bike (which does mean good CCTV coverage) checking for it in a still of the CCTV for every hour reduces it to a one hour window when it happened. Another 10 images a 6 minute window.

Universities also train people like Nurses, Physiotherapists, Paramedics, Social Workers, Doctors, Biomedical Scientists, etc. Arts degrees, as well as having value in their own right, are one part of what keeps universities viable as a whole and allows the other courses to run.

Am I the only one confused by the line "travel allowed via any permitted route"? I.e. "You are allowed to do anything we allow you to do." So helpful!