Fine fiasco as forest of road signs lead to confusion

Published: 2nd June, 2011
EDITOR'S COMMENT

WHO is to blame for the muddle of street signs in Gospel Oak that nets Camden council £60,000 a month? Or, indeed, is anyone to blame?

What is indubitably clear is that the forest of signs at the entrance to Grafton Place can only muddle the average motorist.

A glance at the mixture of signs suggests immediately that if motorists make the wrong choice the fault, on the whole, will not lie with them.

Alerted by the publicity that followed the release of the Freedom of Information document, environment chief Sue Vincent promises action.

Apparently, one of the reasons for the ban on vehicles using a lane between 3pm to 7pm is to discourage parents taking their children to school from using it as a rat run. A praiseworthy intention.

But here we come to the question of how it was to be controlled, and how, or whether, its use was ever monitored. We will assume that council officials in the environment department investigated the problems caused by that short stretch of road and, with the best of intentions, drew up the present set of signs.

So far, so good. But then surely, as complaints mounted, and mounted they certainly did over several years, why did no one in the department ask: “Wait a moment, there is something wrong here!”

Moreover, surely councillors representing the area should have been aware of the problem? Surely, they must have got wind of the problem on the grapevine?

We find it difficult to blame council officials per se. Equally, we do not believe that, subconsciously at least, they sensed what was wrong and exploited it as a magnet for such huge pots of cash!

In the meantime, we suggest to Sue Vincent that if the two traffic banning signs were redesigned along simpler and clearer lines – if, for instance, the car images were removed and replaced with one big signs, in very large letters, making it clear that cars were taboo – perhaps, this would dramatic­ally improve matters.

Dame Barbara Mills

DRIVEN by her beliefs in social justice and a passion for the underdog, Dame Barbara Mills became a role model – not only for aspiring lawyers but also for women, in particular, who were thinking of going to the bar.

Tracing her family history, you can see the trajectory of her life. Helping to run a nursery, committing herself as a governor of Haverstock School, making sure her children became pupils of this comprehensive school, all of this – and later the acknowledged acts of generosity, not to mention the way she broke the glass ceiling for women lawyers – sums up a human being who lived a good life.