A year ago, more or less, our local authority re-laid the main street through the centre of town. It needed it. Potholes and time had taken their toll. It was inconvenient, the street was closed off for a couple of weeks with a diversion. But, it had to be done.

Suddenly, a couple of weeks ago there was, on the same very busy cross street, another festival of lights and cones, with the formation Hi-Viz Morris Dancing team putting on a display. A small area of the road has been dug up, probably to replace a service that has failed.

They did not close the street with a diversion route this time. They set up a temporary traffic light scheme, ostensibly to allow the street to continue being used.

But. They had not bothered to think about the tailback from the temporary lights. As a result, most of the town centre is gridlocked, because the tailback has now blocked off roundabouts and junctions in all directions.

This is planning with a vengeance.

They could have, should have, notified all utility companies of the intention to re-lay the road and given the opportunity to schedule any routine operations, nominally intended for the next five years, to be carried out prior to and contiguous with the full closure. If you have to have a road closure, then make full use of it to get as much done as possible in one hit.

Of course, there will be unforeseen events that may mean further interruptions are necessary.

The key is the word “Unforeseen”.

If you have a utility pipe, duct or cable that has been in place for decades, and sometimes even centuries, its failure cannot be described as “unforeseen”. Unless a full, detailed survey and inspection has been carried out.

Not many people would like to fly in an aircraft whose maintenance crew’s philosophy is “Well, it hasn’t crashed yet, so why worry about this time.”

Most operators have a philosophy of preventive maintenance. If a component has been in service more than a certain portion of its design life, it is routinely changed out and either disposed of or given a full overhaul before returning to service, usually in another unit.

But, we are talking about a public thoroughfare.

So, it doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter about the delays and the gridlock

It doesn’t matter about the missed appointments, the stress, the annoyance.

It doesn’t matter about the increased pollution from idling traffic jams.

None of it matters, because it only happens to the people, the taxpayers. And who gives a flyin’ about them?

They can’t sue you. And even if they could, they would run into an even bigger problem.

No matter how you look at it, no matter how you slice and dice the problem, with public utilities, with public authorities, with local and national government, any sanctions taken for bad performance will end up with the taxpayer.

If you take your local authority to court, and win, any fine will only, and can only, be paid eventually out of the authority’s income. And its only source of income is the taxpayer, either by local or national taxation.

So, suck it up. Sit in the traffic jam and bitch. ‘cos there ain’t nothin’ you can do about it.

Well, there is, but it would need some  serious changes to the law and the legal system, and they aren’t going to allow you to derail their gravy train.