Cycling .... and rubbish UK infrastructure

[Dave2002]

Dave, I'm not sure what it is you don't agree with. If there is political will , it means that the money is available. We seem to find the money where the politicians want to find it, EG Nukes, foreign adventures, MP pay rises, etc etc etc. And political will includes taking on vested interests, such as those holding land banks.

OK - it depends what you mean by political will.

We live in a society where ostensibly things are done in a democratic way, but in practice many of the boundaries and interfaces are counter to sensible organisation. One declared aim of the current government is "localism", but it doesn't really work too well or hasn't so far. Local government departments, such as County Councils, Borough Councils as well as Agencies such as the Highways Agency are constrained, either by legislation or lack of funds.

I think this goes under the concept of silo organisation.

In my area private developers get in, and "offer" to do what many consider to be undesirable "enabling development" for some projects, which is (ha ha) welcomed by the County and Borough Councils because they don't have to pay. The result of this is a (possibly justified) NIMBY opposition by local residents. The basic projects themselves may be desirable, but not with the additional burdens - usually environmental - which the developers try to engineer. The councils or other agencies can't raise any more money because their fund raising is capped by government dictat, yet in a fairly affluent part of the world it would be probably possible to raise funds to do sensible development, as opposed to many people having to waste their time and energy in trying to prevent developers and others with a financial interest doing their own thing. There is very little top down money, as HMG claims that we are down on our uppers, and can't afford to spend it - though that's a somewhat selective view I think.