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I don’t read newspapers any more, and I rarely read magazines other than the odd car title, because it’s getting too depressing. Everywhere you look there are tales of woe – either that or one report after another on plain stupid decisions. A friend sent me a cutting from New Civil Engineer recently, and in it there was a piece on how Buckinghamshire County Council has cut the costs of sorting out congestion between Aylesbury and Milton Keynes, from £128m to just £11m. Sounds like a great idea, does it not? Sadly, not so; delve slightly deeper and you’ll quickly discover that this £11m is basically the cost of doing nothing. Instead of building much-needed fresh infrastructure, there will be lots of money spent on better cycle paths and more public transport. The decision comes after discussions between the local authority and Friends of the Earth, which says building new roads provides poor value for money; it seems the council somehow didn’t get round to consulting those who actually travel between the two towns. Still, all those thousands of people travelling the 21 miles between the two towns will no doubt be heartened by the fact that the £11m is apparently far better value than £128m being spent on something people might actually want to use.
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