{"id":1863,"date":"2014-06-05T15:05:13","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T14:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/abbeylandsresidents.org.uk\/?p=1863"},"modified":"2014-07-14T12:45:57","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T11:45:57","slug":"why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/why-did-the-chicken-cross-the-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did the chicken cross the road?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bob<\/a>As every schoolboy\u00a0knows the answer is “to get to the other side.” Many, including this opinionated bien pensant, will understand the reason that\u00a0the chicken does stuff\u00a0is fundamentally a\u00a0philosophical question. There is more to it than just getting across the road.<\/p>\n

Why\u00a0it even helps explain why East Lothian Council Transport Department does things the way it does. I checked the\u00a0canonical texts over at philosophy.eserver.com<\/a>, and\u00a0substituted “ELC Transport Department” for the ubiquitous chicken. To save you time, I suggest that ELC Transport Department is\u00a0– unlike our beautiful cock – an incongruous and weird mashup of\u00a0Plato, Marx, Hume, Reagan and Thatcher, though I am sure my readers – all 3 of them will have alternative interpretations. I only wish they would ask Constable. Of\u00a0course everyone in public service does things for the greater good, don’t they? I am the first to\u00a0come to a\u00a0public servant’s defence when their reputation is being trashed by lazy thinking\u00a0media, mainly on the right. To my mind technocrats with proper checks and balances can make for better governance than politicians by a long stretch. I am less likely to come to a\u00a0politician’s defence, who are mostly in it for self promotion and\u00a0gain, even if without resorting to venality (there are of course notable exceptions.)<\/p>\n

There is an inevitability about processes in the ‘res publica’ – once a course is set upon, then nothing is going to stop it and ELC Transport are\u00a0no different. It is historically inevitable that those holes in the road will be filled at some point sometime this decade. And because everything these days takes a long time, the reasons and justifications are long lost or forgotten. But who cares which or how many holes were filled, somewhere near Broxmouth, we need not count them all. Everyone involved has either moved on to better things or simply lost the will to live (and to object.) And to parody Mrs T, this Council is\u00a0no turning back.<\/p>\n

This is also the sad and sorry tale of the Dunbar Traffic Regulation Order or TRO. As the document was finally published on 2nd June 2014, almost 10 years in the making, the\u00a0justification seems to be quite\u00a0disconnected from the original thinking, fails to account for new information, fails to learn from a decade of inertia and is now rather dislocated from current transport strategy and policy, even before you look at\u00a0local needs.<\/p>\n

There are bits of paper somewhere in the Council offices that justify these actions, we’ve republished some of them here to make them easier to find and access (check the menu items on the right hand side and our lovely slippy map of the 2014 order<\/a>\u00a0and comments on consultation drafts<\/a> we obtained).<\/p>\n

But how many of the changes have been actually agreed in the context of current budgetary strictures? How many of\u00a0these justifications have been twisted and muddled by political meddling over the years, especially the cooncillors favourite sweetner – more parking? ELCTD’s\u00a0approach to consultation seems\u00a0on face value\u00a0reasonable with extended timetables being accommodated as if time was no object, presumably so that everyone can get their views in, though I’ll bet few people actually do. In practice you can expect the majority of comments to be\u00a0ignored.<\/p>\n

Along with other famous historical local consultations (20s Plenty, Parsons Pool come to mind as bizarre [1. Why was it necessary to consult on a trial 20mph and why on earth were locals allowed to remove all vestige of green on their street – was that always the plan to make room for even more cars?]) makes it all sound more like\u00a0administrative convenience \u00a0trumps everything. If you are cynical, like me, such consultation is\u00a0a\u00a0sham and\u00a0a travesty of local\u00a0democracy –\u00a0the officers clearly just going through the motions. Or could it be that local government has simply run out of steam and we are witnessing the inexorable decline into a zombie democracy.\u00a0The fact that\u00a0it is probably going to cost us loads more, wasn’t on the original plan, the plan assumptions are no longer valid seems immaterial and churlish to question. I just wonder when they will finally find the cash and time to fix the sets properly … or do we have to wait for the proverbial\u00a0riot and then remove them entirely?<\/p>\n

Reasons to cross the road<\/p>\n

Plato:                For the greater good.\r\n\r\nKarl Marx:            It was a historical inevitability.\r\n\r\nDavid Hume:           Out of custom and habit.\r\n\r\nRonald Reagan:        I forget.\r\n\r\nMrs Thatcher:         This chicken's not for turning.\r\n\r\nConstable:            To get a better view.<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As every schoolboy\u00a0knows the answer is “to get to the other side.” Many, including this opinionated bien pensant, will understand the reason that\u00a0the chicken does stuff\u00a0is fundamentally a\u00a0philosophical question. There is more to it than just getting across the road. Why\u00a0it even helps explain why East Lothian Council Transport Department does things the way it … Continue reading Why did the chicken cross the road?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":1874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/files\/2014\/06\/3488674595_160821a575_b.jpg?fit=1024%2C763&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":684,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/dunbar-high-street-crossings-drivers-1-pedestrians-0\/","url_meta":{"origin":1863,"position":0},"title":"Dunbar High Street Crossings – another win win for drivers","author":"templar","date":"January 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Not content with allowing the otherwise attractive cobbled sets forming the crossings on Dunbar's Historic High Street to fall into disrepair, East Lothian Council have finally decided to remove them. The reasoning is a bit opaque. No doubt\u00a0pedestrians were asked about this in an unrepresentative vox pop survey of resident's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1429,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/destination-dunbar-or-dormitory-town\/","url_meta":{"origin":1863,"position":1},"title":"Destination Dunbar","author":"templar","date":"September 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"My presentation notes. The fortunes of High streets have always waxed and waned, but the most recent decline of high streets seems inexorable and attempts to reverse it labelled by some as \"mission impossible\". 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It doesn't have to be ELC to lead this, just a creative coalition of the willing who could - with a suitable preferably local sponsor - pull off something really imaginative. Below is what Bushmills has been doing in Co. Antrim, hiring artists to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Opinion"","block_context":{"text":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/topics\/opinion\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":801,"url":"https:\/\/ourlocality.org\/abbeylands\/proposed-waiting-and-loading-restrictions-in-dunbar-ensure-high-street-is-resident-parking-free-zone\/","url_meta":{"origin":1863,"position":3},"title":"Proposed Waiting and Loading Restrictions in Dunbar ensure High Street is Resident Parking-Free Zone","author":"Barodunum","date":"February 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"East Lothian Council is recommending that the existing Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) for Dunbar be amended to reflect current parking behaviour and road use by residents and businesses.\u00a0A formal consultation letter has been sent out to statutory consultees. 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