If run as a business, over a few years many inside jobs are created for people that aren’t really required, for family members or friends of friends. It happens in most companies. After time they end up running at a loss and have to sell up.
New owners usually start with stripping out the deadwood ie (the workforce) from managerial to shop floor.
Councils are in every town and city, and have been running for many, many years without the introduction of stripping out the deadwood. There must be many thousands of workers within the council who do not really have a job and have no real value or input in what they are supposed to do.
Time for a shake-up? Absolutely.
Now on to street lighting. This was a very bad idea, as highlighted by A Canham in his letter (January 26).
Another point I would like to bring up about turning the lights out is that many people go to and return home from shift work while the lights are out, myself being one of them.
Earlier this week I was returning home from a night shift and came very close to running over a cyclist.
I did catch him on CCTV as it was right outside my home and also on my traffic camera. As I was turning into Speyer Avenue from Park Road this cyclist came into view right in front of my bonnet. He had no lights on his bike, no hi-vis vest, a dark coloured bike and black clothing.
He had to swerve to miss me and only just got out of the way. On camera you can clearly see me indicating so he must have known I was there and what I was about to do.
Even with headlights on it is so difficult to see the street you want to turn into. On New Year’s Eve I saw a vehicle miss his turning and slam his brakes on skidding for several feet then having to reverse.
A cyclist at my workplace has complained to me that he cannot see the cars parked on the side of the road as it is so dark, and has had close shaves with pedestrians crossing the road in front of him, as he cannot see them.
Turning out the lights may not affect white-collar workers, but it does for a large amount of the people of Spalding, as a large number are shop floor factory workers and labourers in the fields.
Spalding
