Free As A Lark Runs at Great Yarmouth Today
She’s in the 15:20. She may have a chance and if you have Sky, the race will be on At The Races (Channel 415)!
I’ll be going by train from Dullingham and I’m also hoping to look at Norfolk’s cut-off Eastern outpost.
No she doesn’t as the ground has got too soft! But I’m still going to the town to have lunch and a look round!
Solving the Roadkill Problem
It is being reported that roadkills cost a Norfolk council about £1,500 a month to send them to a crematorium.
But there is a more elegant and dramatic solution.
Why not release a few more red kites? These birds would love all those roadkills.
A Statue of Arthur Lowe
It is being unvieled today in Thetford according to the California Chronicle. The reference shows how far the much-loved TV series, Dad’s Army, has penetrated the world’s pysche.
Perhaps, the UK and especially England’s beleaguered sportsman could learn a lot from Captain Mannering’s ragbag collection of heroes.
Where NOT to Park Your Car
Moneysupermarket has just published a list of the car crime hot-spots.
East London seems to be amongst the worst, with five in the top twenty. It’s probably because they are close to the M11 and M25 to give a good getaway. And then there are city centres in Manchester, Bradford and Leeds.
But also Wells-next-the-Sea, a charming seaside town in Norfolk features.
Who’s have thought the North Norfolk coast would have such a problem?
North-South Divide
They are discussing the North-South divide on BBC Breakfast this morning.
What about the East-West divide?
Here in East Anglia, we have an economy about the size of Scotland, but we rely on much less government subsidy, we export more and we have higher unemployment.
But what do we get in return for looking after our economy and contributing to the well-being of the whole of the UK?
Not a lot really!
We have some of the worst roads and transport systems in the UK.
- The A14 past Cambridge and Huntingdon is one of the most overcrowded roads in Europe.
- Norwich is isolated from the rest of the country, by the gap in dual-carriageway of the A11 at Elveden and no proper route along the A47 to the Midlands.
- Yarmouth is in desperate need to be connected to Norwich by a decent road.
- Ipswich-Norwich links are virtually non-existent, unless you go by train
- There is the missing link of the A120 from Braintree to Marks Tey.
- Most of the trains in East Anglia are cast-offs from other networks and trains from east to west and on to the Midlands and the North are poor to say the least.
- Very few stations anyway have adequate parking places.
Many of these problems have been down to be solved for years, but they always get delayed. But then there are few Labour MPs and votes in East Anglia.
But still we manage and expand. Today, Glaxo Smith Kline has announced a large expansion of research in Stevenage and Cambridge is still growing.
We need the investment on infrastructure here in East Anglia, so that can create wealth for others in the UK.
White Horse, Brancaster Staithe
My late wife and I ate several times at this pub on the North Norfolk Coast.
Today, I had to visit a friend in the area and we had lunch in the restaurant. For a bad day in October, that was cold and looked to be turning wet, the restaurant was full. Perhaps it was more a day for eating and drinking rather than walking.
I said that I was a coeliac and I was told that everything on the menu was either naturally gluten-free or could be modified.
So I had salmon and potato fishcakes. I can’t remember the last time I had any decent fishcakes.
With a pint of Aspall‘s cyder as well.
Heaven!
Note that the group also have a similar and equally good pub called the Fox at Willian. This is useful as it is close to junction 9 of the A1(M). It’s so much better than the Service Area a few kilomtres to the north.
RSPB and the A11
It now looks like that the RSPB are trying to stop the dualling of the A11. This was reported in yesterday’s East Anglian Daily Times.
Now I like birds, but they are very adaptable creatures and if we make adequate provision, they will move. But the trouble with a lot of bird groups is that birds come first and people and commerce second. Now, who is it that pays for their little feelgood group?
As I indicated in my post Where Have All the Birds Gone, it could be that some of the beliefs of the bird groups, actually reduce such things as song birds. I only say could be, but endless studies never seem to find a problem as to where have all the sparrows gone.
On the other hand, I’m not in favour of shooting either. In one picture, my late wife is pictured with a racing professional, who was shot because a gun was handy. I just don’t like guns and have banned them from my land, except where say a deer, that has been injured by a car, needs to be humanely put-down. They are just too dangerous to be in the hands of a lot of people who own them.
We just need balance between everything, so that people, commerce, farmers, birds and animals all thrive.
But please let’s have the missing link in the A11! And while we’re at it, let’s make the A47 all dual-carriageway from Yarmouth to Peterborough.
Dualling the A11
More on the local news about the costs and lack of dualling of the last piece of the A11 between London and Norwich. It’s about time it was done, but then East Anglia is very much on this dreadful not-do-anything-for-them list, as we don’t have too many Labour MPs and virtually no councillors.
I drove up to the Norfolk coast yesterday and because it was Thursday, the traffic was not too great. But try doing that journey in the rush hour or at the weekend!
Norwich needs to be connected by dual carriageway roads to Ipswich, Yarmouth, Peterborough and Newmarket. On current progress, only Newmarket will ever be done and probably in about 2020. If this was Scotland or the North of England, it would have been done years ago.
If I was to talk about trains, I could add that East Anglia gets everybody else’s cast off rolling stock. But they do work pretty well, despite what you read in the papers. Let’s have a decent Cambridge-Ipswich service.
The Anonymous Widower 