Leasedrive Velo Blog

Roddy Graham, Commercial Director

Glad to see government is getting heavy on penalties on a number of fronts.

First was the news last month that the Sentencing Guidelines Council has issued penalty guidelines relating to those found guilty under the UK Corporate Manslaughter (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and Corporate Homicide (Scotland) Act or Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Under the former, a work-related road death will result in an organisation being fined rarely less than half a million pounds and more likely several million pounds.

Under the latter, the fine will be seldom less than £100,000 and more likely several hundred thousand pounds.

All we need now is for relevant prosecutions to take place and heavy fines imposed for the message on duty of care to be really driven home.

Being stuck in a traffic jam is never fun but when the roadworks overrun their due finish date, drivers have every reason to fume behind the wheel. However, up to now there has been little real incentive for contractors to get on with the job and finish on time. Certainly, not in financial penalty terms.

That’s all about to change with those contractors flagrantly breaching their obligations facing a tenfold increase in penalties from a daily charge of £2,500 to a whopping £25,000 per day.

According to the government, road works cost the economy £4.2 billion per year. Many of these are the result of utility companies digging up the road and government is keen for them to finish on time or face the consequences. They won’t even be allowed to pass on the cost of any fines on to consumers either.

At the same time, local councils are being given extra powers to charge utility companies for inspecting the progress and completion of road works. Again, with the chance of being charged for additional inspections, following poor rectification work, perhaps we’ll start seeing better road surface repairs with proper sealing and matching of surface levels.

Currently, in addition to having to zigzag between potholes, we have to contend with bouncing over uneven road surfaces as the result of poor road repairs.

With councils hard pressed to find emergency funds for ‘winter’ road repairs, perhaps utility companies should face the costs of resurfacing the whole road in which they have dug a channel. That way at least all road users would be guaranteed an even surface on which to travel and councils’ road repair bills would be reduced. After all, the utility companies have plenty of money in their own coffers!

Roddy Graham, Commercial Director

We’re heading for the worst winter in 30 years and it shows as UK plc is frozen in a white out. Whole swathes of the country are impassable, numerous schools are closed and many workers have had to stay at home.

Salt and grit shortages are nationwide and gas is even in short supply. Now that’s not what I call a good start to the New Year.

Unusually before Christmas, many parts of the country came to a halt when unforeseen snow caused grid-lock. My neck of the woods was particularly badly hit. It took me longer to cover the 20-minute journey home than it had done to drive down from Glasgow to Wokingham the previous Sunday!

Those living in the countryside are worst hit as priority is given to keeping motorways and major A-roads free. Apparently, the Government has forbidden councils from replenishing roadside grit boxes in order to keep the main road arteries of the country flowing. So people who don’t get their roads salted or gritted don’t even have the chance of doing it themselves!

They are well and truly stuck at home.

Why the sudden change in weather?

Last winter was bad and this winter is even worse. Some may say it is due to climate change but if I recall rightly we were supposed to have wetter not colder winters in this country. Whatever the reason, economically we cannot afford to standstill. We need to keep on the move to get the country back on its feet.

Government needs to look at what some of our fellow EU members do by way of contingency planning for colder winters. Like wet leaves on the line, we cannot use snowfall as an excuse not to work or study.

Meanwhile, those that managed to get to work or school will no doubt go home early, and do so with a struggle.

When the snow eventually does thaw, it will reveal even more pot-holed roads than we have been suffering before.

While Saab used car values may be plummeting due to the manufacturer’s imminent closure, despite the marque being designed for far colder winters, you can be sure that if Government and councils don’t start getting their acts together, sales of four-wheel-drive vehicles will start to climb. And that can’t be good for the environment either!