Arcticterntalk.org

The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world

Archive for the tag “red route”

31 Dec 2013

Abolition of Paper Tax Discs in 2014


On Thursday 5 December 2013, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the government will change the law in 2014 to reduce tax administration costs and burdens associated with vehicle tax. New system will be digital record. This can be checked by mere mortals by visiting this site

http://www.gov.uk/check-vehicle-tax

Paper tax discs will be replaced with electronic system from October 2014, with monthly direct debit option for 5%, or annually or even bi-annually. The government will do well out of this as the government estimates that it will lose around £35m due to Vehicle Excise Duty evasion in 2013/14, which equates to around 210,000 un-taxed vehicles, or 0.6% of the traffic on UK roads.

Maybe CCTV will then be able to stop motorists flouting the red route lines as shown in photograph below.

image

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31 Jan 2013
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When Shirley met Sparkbrook


Today I made a tragic mistake and took the A34 route towards my hotel in Birmingham. I have never been a fan of Birmingham as a city, always found it complex to get around, dreadful signage and usually cold. Today I am convinced that I am right. It took me over an hour to drive 8 miles from the M42 to Fiveways corner. 

The traffic was the worst I have seen since Colombo in Sri Lanka, no signs of any use, appalling driving against reminiscent of Sri Lanka, but to see so many closed down shops was sad. In fact the only shops that looked open were a few fruit and vegetable purveying establishments and multiple Indian restaurants. 

The city seems frankly just too crowded. Too many cars. Too many people. And far too many empty bus lanes. I am all in favour of bus lanes when there are buses to use them. I did this epic travel in rush hour and saw none. Just empty bus lanes with threats of execution if one strayed an inch over the line and entered the forbidden territory. 

The result? I will never come here again out of choice. Why should I? Complex to reach, no obvious redeeming features and expensive. Sorry Birmingham,I am sure the people are very nice, but why do you live here? 

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