In case you missed it….. Congestion Survey Ironically Cancelled after Nine Mile Traffic Jam

In a feat of ironic u-turning impressive even for Local government, a traffic census by Norfolk County Council was this month cancelled after it caused a vast traffic jam on the A47.

A back-log of nine miles, significantly greater than typical rush hour levels, was created as a result of a census that, somewhat incredibly, involved stopping each car to find out the origin of their journey…..during rush hour.

By 9:30am things were so bad the survey had to be called off. Already hundreds of angry motorists were late for the school run and work.

Perhaps even more incredibly was that this calamitous survey was only the latest in a run of 30 surveys that had caused severe travel problems around Norwich, in just an 18 day period!

A spokesman for the council reputedly stated:

“The council will assess information already obtained and has decided not to resume the survey. The council apologises for the inconvenience caused by the surveys carried out in the Norwich area during November.

“Origin and destination information is essential to help plan travel and transport improvements. This has to be obtained from people using the road, either through on-the-spot interview, or via prepaid survey post cards.”

If the argument against post cards in this situation was an economic one, perhaps they should attempt to gauge how many millions of pounds were lost to the local economy through the lost man-hours of those stuck in traffic and put those costs into perspective.

With a veritable omnishambles of 30 surveys in just 18 days, perhaps time should also be spent on working out how the process was allowed to proceed in the first place.

Whatever the outcome, this is surely the worst example of council incompetence since this man and his light bulb from the August Edition of our newsletter.

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