Sometimes, people will go to great lengths to apply punitive measures which are purely designed to get something that THEY want – usually at the expense of denying something to others.
I was at the test centre the other day and saw this letter pinned up on the noticeboard. This is the full text:
Dear Sir or Madam/Driving Standards Agency Representative
Appeal for Increased Community Sensitivity and Consideration from Driving Instructors and Driving Examiners
I am the local Neighbourhood Action Officer and I am writing on behalf of Nottingham City Council, Leen Valley Ward Councillors and local residents who live in the roads frequently used by Driving Examiners and Driving Instructors around of by Robins Wood Test Centre. I have been facilitating public meetings in this area, which are chaired by local councillors and are designed to enable residents to raise issues of concern and share ideas for improving the neighbourhood.
A serious and consistent issue has been brought up at meetings concerning the way Driving Examiners and Driving Instructors behave on the streets surrounding the test centre. I am requesting your help to reduce the impact of this problem.
The issues that have been raised are:
- Litter thrown from cars
- Parking in places which obscure visibility, cause obstruction and increase the risk of road accidents
- Remaining stationery (sic) for long periods with the engine running in particular outside the bungalow at [number deleted] Prestwood Drive. A lady who lives in this bungalow has a serious lung condition which she believes is greatly worsened by the car fumes that come into her bungalow and she is unable to open her windows because of this.
I would like Driving Examiners and Instructors to be made aware of the stress their behaviour is causing the local community. We appreciate that everyone on the road was a learner once and we fully recognise the need for such valuable resource for the city, but if it is possible for Driving Examiners and Instructors to alter their routes a bit to ensure disruption to local residents is spread about a wider area this would mean a lot to the surrounding community.
We also request that Driving Examiners and Instructors support us by parking in places which are safe to do so and do not obstruct visibility, and by not dropping litter out of their cars. If it is possible to turn your engines off if you are stationery (sic) for a while this would be greatly appreciated. In particular if cars could refrain from using the corner find a range of different corners to use this would huge improve the quality of life of lady with lung problems.
I have been to the Test Centre on Chalfont Drive and made them aware of the situation and requested their co-operation, but if there is anything you can do to help in addition to this, I would be most grateful. If you would like to chat through any suggestions you might have to help the situation please get in touch, whichever way is best for you. Whatever you feel you can or cannot contribute I would appreciate a reply to this letter and look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully
Have you ever read such emotive or libellous nonsense?
Although I use Chalfont Drive Test Centre, I can honestly say I have never used the corner referred to on Prestwood Drive. The road isn’t that quiet, and for as long as I can remember there has been a bloody notice up in the test centre waiting room asking people not to use Prestwood Drive because of residents’ complaints (probably, ONE resident in particular, judging from this). I honestly can’t recall seeing any other instructor using it because of the nature of the road – the test centre is about ¼ mile down and there is a school opposite. On weekdays it’s too busy.
In any neighbourhood you always get one habitual complainer and since modern councils are staffed by weak-minded idiots, they end up spending a disproportionate amount of their time and money involving themselves in things that simply aren’t worth the effort, but which tick all the necessary politically correct boxes.
The junction in question is shown below. Note the school to the left and Prestwood Drive to the right.
With all due respect to “the lady” who has complained, if car fumes are affecting her lung condition – and I seriously doubt that – the effect will be a thousand times worse as a result of the mummies and daddies who park dangerously outside the school for hours at a time when they come to pick up their little darlings (the school “specialises in the dramatic arts”, so you can imagine the mummy-o-meter being off the scale most of the time). It’s horrendous down there most of the day, and not from learners. The specific complaint here is against learners – not car fumes – and it is part of a concerted attempt by someone to get their own way (the notice at the test centre being part of the campaign).
That leads on to the other ridiculous accusation about dangerous parking and increasing the risk of accidents. The standard of driving around that area is appalling, and it is NOT learners who are to blame. The only direct effect you could attribute to learners is that their mere presence makes the average jackass who lives around there (or who goes to pick up the next generation of Big Brother applicant from that school) drive even more dangerously than usual.
And as for “dropping litter”: someone should take the stupid idiot who wrote the letter to court over that. It’s just libel, and spawned by old dears who want learners – all except their grandchildren, obviously – banned from the roads.
Using me as an example, this is how it works. I’ve already said I don’t use Prestwood Drive (and never have). I do use Aspley Park Drive a couple of times a week. I do use the retirement bungalow estate between Beechdale Road and Wigman Road a couple of times a week (several roads on there are subject to “please don’t” notices in the test centre, and I avoid those). I do use areas in Bramcote a several times a week. I do use lots of other areas, too. I travel as far as Bingham to do manoeuvres – even with pupils who will do their tests at Chalfont Drive – because I can take in different road types. I use industrial estates all over the city (see Punitive Pettiness #2) in the evenings when they’re not in use. And so it goes on.
The bottom line is that if some Neighbourhood Watch Official, just out of college and with a shiny new NVQ in Local Government Affairs, decides to take a single road out of context with all of what I do, then I am suddenly a Criminal against The Community.
The author of that letter is very naive if she thinks moving the problem elsewhere will solve anything. She’s also even more naive if the can’t see that it is just a handful of chronic whingers she is siding with. If she satisfies all of them, there are plenty more ready to crawl out of the woodwork on every street in the county.