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.
Jams at the Dartford Crossing
To get to and from Holland, I used the Dartford Crossing twice.
It is not a credit to Britain’s roads. About ten years ago, I used to use it regularly on a Friday night to come back from a client and usually I travelled home from a Cuckfield, a few miles south of Gatwick to my home a few miles from the north of the M11 in two hours. I also used to phone my wife as I left the tunnel and knew that I’d be home in virtually exactly an hour.
Now it is not as easy to do such times.
On Friday, I crossed the bridge in a slow queue of traffic. It wasn’t too bad and I was perhaps delayed by about ten minutes. But now, that the charge to use the crossing has gone up from £1 to £1.50, once I got to the booths, the automatic ones were virtually unused with a queue of perhaps two or three vehicles at most. Congestion also seemed to be caused by cars realising at the last minute, that they didn’t have the fifty pence coin and then crossing over.
It was the same on Monday, when I came through going north.
So in other words, a lot of the congestion is caused at the tunnel by the charging structure.
I suppose all that we can do is make sure that we have the correct money.
But then what the crossing really needs is a lot more tool booths!
The Bridge at Glossop
Last week, I went to Manchester. I did post about The Petticoat Line and the Ladies Night that I listened to on the way down. I didn’t travel to Manchester by the obvious route of the A14 and M6, but by a route that is ingrained in my past.
When I was at Liverpool University in the 1960s, there was no M6 link and to travel between the M1 at Watford Gap and the M6 at Cannock Chase was a slow crawl through a lot of Coventry and Birmingham. So you found other routes!
Typically, from London, I’d take the A5 from the M1 and then head north-west past Lichfield and Stone to join the M6 at Stoke, just south of Keele Services. I did that trip a lot of times, both in my Morris Minor and also by hitching. The latter was fun and sometimes I’d take six or seven hours, but I once did it in under four from Barnet to Liverpool and every lift was an HGV. There was also the tale of the commercial traveller after the 1966 Cup Final between Everton and Sheffield Wednesday. He was an Everton supporter and I got a lift from Watford all the way back to Liverpool.
But my parents had a house in Felixstowe and after 1966 or so, they lived there permanently.
Travel from there was a nightmare. If I had chosen to go by train, it would have meant a journey via London, as there was only one train a day from Ipswich to the North West. And then I’d have had to change at Manchester. Now there are several trains a day to Liverpool and they do the journey in a lot shorter time.
I did try hitching a couple of times, but once in East Anglia, lifts were few and far between and I often took up to four hours to get from the M1 at Northampton to the Suffolk coast.
So I had to use the faithful Morris Minor.
But the drive from there to Liverpool was even worse than from London. The A14 as we know it today wasn’t even a dream in anybody’s eye. Ipswich, Needham Market, Stowmarket, Bury St. Edmunds, Newmarket and Cambridge were not bypassed and there was little dual-carriageway road in between. Believe it or not, it was quicker to cut north, via Thetford and Kings Lynn. Then it was over Sutton Bridge, past Spalding and through Bourne before joining the A1 to go north.
The A1 was mostly dual carriageway from there, although the Tuxford section was still a single lane crawl. I then turned east and took the A57, through Worksop and Sheffield, before taking Snake Pass towards Manchester.
So this was the route I took to Manchester last week. Or at least the last part, as now the A1 from Cambridge is a very good and open road, with no roundabouts and only a short stretch at Exton with a 50 limit.
I still love that pass through the moors. The colours made me feel so much better.
But as I remember it Glossop was a lot less busy in the 1960s. Then it really marked the end of the difficult journey and it was straight through Manchester and on the East Lancs Road to Liverpool.
But now it marks the start of a slow crawl through the villages of Hollingworth and Tintwhistle to the M67. If there was ever the need for a by-pass then surely that place needs it. One was proposed in 1989, but is not planned to be built until 2016-7. So in other words, like the missing A11 link, it will not be built.
One thing though stood out on the route and that was where the Glossop railway passed over the road.
Dinfield Viaduct at Glossop
Note the extra piers, that were I think put in when they electrified the line in the 1950s. Then it was electrified all the way to Sheffield, but now you can only go from Manchester to Glossop. Sad, because if I remember my Meccano Magazine correctly, the Woodhead Line was one of the most spectacular railway lines in the UK. It has since acquired cult status among railway enthusiasts.
Perhaps one day, they’ll do something useful with the tunnels under the Pennines.
French Road Chaos
We tend to think that the French are a law abiding lot, what with the way they have treated British farm imports, how they keep Franglais out of French, how de Gaulle used the N-word lots of times, how they are fining people with designer goods and how their farmers are so creative with EU subsidies.
But this latest story shows them at their best!
Vive la France!
The Coeliac Travel Problem
It was a two and a half hour journey of 155 miles home. But at least I had the top down on the Lotus, which is a great way to drive under the stars. Sadly, I didn’t see any meteorites.
I hadn’t eaten since lunch before I left and except for a fruit bar, I didn’t eat anything on the way back. I generally don’t stop in motorway service stations, as it means putting up and taking down the hood. Not that this is a problem, as it is much quicker, than those fancy electric ones you now get on convertibles, but I am just lazy.
But all of the garages on the A14 had shut their shops, so I got home hungry.
So I went to bed after a small whisky and a bag of crisps.
I should have planned better, but it is a real problem to find sensible gluten-free food to eat on the go. Especially as my fridge that plugs into the car has turned itself into just an insulated box!
Ironbridge
In the end I left about just before two and after a pretty easy drive along the A14, M6 and M54, I arrived at Ironbridge about four thirty. The only delays were around the M6/M5 junction, but they were minimal. At least the signs had told me that the motorway was reasonably clear, so I didn’t take the more expensive option of the M6 Toll. The problem with that road is that it doesn’t link up properly with the M54 and you sometimes get delayed on the single carriageway link.
Why do we create cheap junctions and miss bits out when we built roads like the M54-M6 Toll Link, the A14-M1-M6 junction at Catthorpe and the A11 missing link at Elveden? I suspect it’s because the mandarins in the Treasury don’t travel except by executive helicopter or First Class train. So they never suffer the inconvenience they leave us. It just needs proper planning!
On the other hand I once met a senior mandarin. He was single, couldn’t swim, couldn’t ride a bike, lived in a terraced house in Surbiton and was very lacking in general common sense. But he had got a First from Oxford!
To return to Ironbridge.
The Iron Bridge
I got there just as it was closing. And by closing I mean virtually everything. I asked in one cafe why they were closing at five and they said it was because everybody left then because that was the time the museums closed.
On a gorgeous summer evening like last night, they should be open till at least six and if it was me, it would be seven or eight.
View from the Iron Bridge
This is the view looking north and it shows the deep gorge carved out by the River Severn.
Looking the Other Way from the Iron Bridge
And this is the view looking downstream.
Next time I’ll go earlier and check out some of the museums. One thing though is that the long term car park on the other side of the bridge to the town was very affordable and reasonably empty. I should have got my bike out to explore the town.
A Disagreeable Garage
When I was going into Coventry, I needed some fuel and to go to the toilet. So I pulled into a BP garage on the Hinckley Road as I drove into Coventry and filled up. I can’t be sure of the name, but it was the first as you enter the city.
But the toilet was for staff only.
And they didn’t accept my voucher for the Sunday Times.
I thought they were called service stations!
Fuel at Brentwood on the M25
As I drove past the Dartford Crossing, it was obvious that I would need to fill up with fuel. No-one in their right mind goes into a motorway service station to buy fuel, although I’ll admit that in some the toilets are clean. Some too have Marks & Spencer, Simply Food outlets and these are worth visiting too.
But at Brentwood, close to the junction is a Total garage on the A1023 that leads into Brentwood.
So I filled up there. It was convenient and cheaper than the fuel on the motorway.
I did make one mistake in that I bought some nuts. But they were KP’s new salt and vinegar variety. They are not gluten-free!
Why I Drive a Lotus
Last night I drove into town to buy my supper at Waitrose. I was in the Lotus Elan.
It is quite a twisting road and I was probably doing fifty around the bends, which is perfectly safe and the sort of speed that everybody does. Where I cross the county border, there is a gentle bend to the right, with a very small side road. A black Mercedes convertible was waiting to turn onto the main road, but he was obviously dithering as to whether to turn left or right. As I approached to within about thirty metres or so, he pulled out straight in front of me.
Why? The guy must have seen me coming, as the Lotus is bright yellow.
But he didn’t and just kept coming.
I couldn’t go straight on as I would have hit him side on, so I braked hard and dived up the side road, missing him by perhaps three or four metres. An easy move for the Lotus, but one that even the Jaguar might have had difficulty performing.
The guy just drove off and then stopped fifty or so metres on the other side of the road, on the inside of the bend. Perhaps, he wanted someone else to run into him.
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.
The Anonymous Widower 