Tom V

This seems like an excellent way to provide jobs for the boys and waste loads of money. Our water companies are natural monopolies, there is no competition and never can be, so why should they remain private companies paying dividends to shareholders. Why can every single penny not be reinvested?

Work begins today reinstate 30mph roads in Shirley Work is set to begin today to reinstate 30mph zones in Shirley that had been made 20mph

www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/2528229...

Scheme was set to run for 3 hours in the morning and 3 in the evening, so no incentive for local hospitality businesses to invest in outside tables and chairs, especially given the debacle of the Bedford Place pedestrianisation getting cancelled early.

Portswood Project trial set to begin The trial for the part time bus/taxi/cycle only restriction on Portswood Road is set to begin on Monday 27 January 2025.

www.southampton.gov.uk/news/article...

Portswood has a dedicated bypass that was presumably built at great expense and cleared a huge amount of housing and has created a huge obstacle to pedestrians for a large distance in the city.

The council have no interest whatsoever in limiting the movements of motorists in a serious way.

They tried to pedestrianise Portswood recently but consulted so much the scheme was useless. They did not LTN the surrounding residential roads so traffic increased and the scheme was swiftly scrapped.

There are 2 schools and a college on or next to Hill Lane and 3 schools on roads that join it.

All of the roads are residential roads.

Southampton is very densely populated.

They also steadfastly refuse to tackle pavement parking or make HMO occupiers take bins back in so pavements are blocked often.

They design and are proud of terrible junctions like this (see how there is a van on the pavement too): www.google.com/maps/@50.918...

I got hit by a car at this junction

They also pledged that the only route capable of carrying a bus lane across the Itchen River would not have bus lanes.

Have done half arsed pedestrianisation schemes that are bad for everyone because they try to please everybody instead of just pleasing non motorists.

Speed limits set to change in weeks as 20mph is scrapped The council have U-turned a decision to make a number of city centre roads 20 miles per hour.

Southampton are reversing some sections of 20MPH limits that will have very minimal impact on journey times: www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/2526046...

The council here have been building new parking spaces on green space, building sections of bike lanes that don't join up, disappear at junctions etc

I hope you are part of this @darrenpaffey.bsky.social and @laboursatvir.bsky.social

Or something I can respond to in the app. Or they can somehow authorise themselves back to me with a memorable phrase or whatever.

By building infra that stops and starts at random, diverts through sketchy parks with high crime rates, completely ignores junctions when things get difficult, gives way to minor side roads etc etc, they will not create additional cycle trips.

Wasting money sets back build proper infra.

I know they think I’m being hostile, they have told me so, but the amount of money that’s been wasted on cycling infra that cannot work is staggering.

If they’re not going to do it properly they should not do anything and spend the money on something else.

I’ve used quite robust language with my Cllrs here in Southampton to try to get them to understand that what they should build is a problem that is already solved, the only question is whether they have the guts to do it.

Anything else is a waste of money and should not be considered.

The irony here is that the Southampton Labour administration are actively hostile towards anyone trying to get about without a car. Anyone wanting a more pleasant city with fewer car trips through residential and shopping areas.

Exactly, I refuse to engage, I ask them to prove who they are and they get all defensive.

The downside is I then have to sit in 20 minutes of hold music on an outbound call at my end to get my payment cleared.

I pointed out that this was creating the perfect conditions for fraud, setting a precedent of making outgoing calls to customers and asking them to confirm their details. They did not seem to care.

My payments kept getting flagged even though I had made payments before to the same accounts too.

I've had a lot of issues with Co-op bank opsec.

They kept flagging transfers to my building society regular saver for fraud checks but would then ting me and ask me to confirm my details and I kept asking them to prove who they were, after all, they rung me, and they said they were not allowed to.

I used to work in a record shop where we sold gig tickets from the counter in the basement:

Customer: Do you sell gig tickets?
Me on the till right next to the stairs: Yes they are sold from the counter downstairs
Customer: Where's that?
Me: It's down stairs, I don't know how it could be clearer?

This is very common in Southampton, almost universal on some roads. Cllrs actively don't care. If it's not cars then its bins permanently out on the pavement, or often both. Council have powers to deal with it but actively choose not to exercise them.

And boiled or roast chicken (again no salt), she loved human food so if we could get some with low enough salt content that was something she would eat as a treat.

Ruby also loved prawns, so if we could ever find low or no salt prawns we would always buy them.

I am pretty sure it was these ones: www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dr...

She continued to get Dreamies too and we pretty much just fed her as much as she wanted, she always had renal biscuits to graze on and we gave her wet food as often as she wanted it.

With Ruby we had better success with the renal biscuits than we did with the renal wet food. Renal treats were also well received, sometimes we would use these as garnish on top of renal wet food to add interest. We also fed 12+ wet food, broths, and soups to get moisture back into her system.

Had gone on for years not being able to claim despite being eligible because the process to claim was so soul destroying we had to be in a good place to even attempt it which meant that being relatively functional when they did the grilling automatically got the claim denied.

My partner was only able to claim because a local advocacy charity helped with the application. This was after giving up due to several very harrowing failed attempts. The advocacy service are also helping with the appeal for higher rate now.

I am surprised anyone is able to claim without help.

No one knows why UK benefit claims have outpaced peer countries Asking why might well result in answers that involve spending more money

@darrenpaffey.bsky.social @laboursatvir.bsky.social

Maybe see if you can get your colleagues to ask WHY so many people need extra financial assistance and struggle to find work that will accommodate their needs. Then try to fix that?

It's an important question.

www.ft.com/content/1e38...

A good yardstick for Labour should be:

"If the Trussell Trust are campaigning against a thing we are planning we should not do that thing. We should be helping people in poverty not creating more poverty"

@darrenpaffey.bsky.social @laboursatvir.bsky.social

Good to know thanks. We are having to get new glazing made to accommodate it but we are hoping to have it installed soon. Please give Daphne a fuss from me.