DEATH IN FENLAND

Only a couple of hours after it was first posted, a Cambs Times poll asking “do you believe enough is done to promote road safety in Fenland ?” showed 20% voting “YES” and 80% thinking that the County Council’s record was simply not up to scratch

Hardly a ringing endorsement of Shire Hall, but I wonder who the 20% are who appear unconcerned about people dying, but none the less have taken the trouble to reply to a newspaper poll.

I’ve discussed Fenland Road safety (or lack of) with literally hundreds of people in the last few years. There are certainly a handfull (mainly councillors) who have said to me “people have always driven into the dikes, so why change it now ?”. But in my straw poll they have never amounted to anything likely to be even approaching 20% of a public opinion poll.

Last week Graham Chappell’s eloquent letter to the Cambs Times suggested the breathtakingly engaging idea of legal action against the Authorities for “Corporate Manslaughter” !

When I read the letter, I wondered if this suggestion of long overdue legal action for manslaughter might finally concentrate County Council’s attention on preventing unnecessary deaths on our roads.

Are the early results of the Cambs Times poll truly representative of the broad swage of Fenland opinion ? Or was the polling population largely constituted of the County Council and its Members scurrying in a panic to their computers ?

Walt.