what a waste of money

darrcow

here we live struggling through this recession try to make ends meet and pay our bills and taxes. the schools need extra funding the roads need attention but what does navan/meath council do. plant trees,bushes and flowers on the roundabouts. what a waste of tax payers money. why not invest it in doing up the empty council houses for people to live in.

Atomic Pineapple

I doubt the cost of planting a few trees and shrubs adds up to anywhere near the money for a house!

darrcow

im saying the money was a waste and could be spent towards somthing more useful. if you add up all the trees,shrubs and plants on 2 large roundabouts(m3 slip road navan and homebase roundabouts) grass verge heading towards woodies.

Atomic Pineapple

Possibly, its likely though that the county council is charged with doing stuff like that under some BS EU law though.

Then again sometimes these things are sponsored and don't cost the county council anything.

Agent_47

Agree, the roundabout planting is typical waste of money by local authorities. Massive reform of the local authorities and their spending is required, they are a law onto themselves. Who the hell is signing off on this stuff.

PauloMN

What do you suggest? Let the place go to **** for the sake of saving a tiny amount? It's all about balance.

Some people might view spending money on "doing up empty council houses" as a waste of tax-payers money.

pullandbang

What a load of bollards!

You want to see a waste of money?
Come to Trim and see the bollards! We have bollards every few yards along the streets that do nothing other than destroy car doors. Someone on the council must be on commission for every bollard that's stuck in a footpath.

What about the halting site for the travelers?
They had perfectly good houses to live in but what did the council do? Flatten the houses (while temporarily housing the travelers in mobile homes) and then build them brand spanking new houses! WTF was wrong with the houses they already had at the taxpayers expense?

As for stupid signage! Don't get me started! Signs everywhere telling you not to do this and not to do that! They have the place polluted with signs. </rant>

pullandbang

pullandbang wrote: »

What a load of bollards!

You want to see a waste of money?
Come to Trim and see the bollards! We have bollards every few yards along the streets that do nothing other than destroy car doors. Someone on the council must be on commission for every bollard that's stuck in a footpath.

What about the halting site for the travelers?
They had perfectly good houses to live in but what did the council do? Flatten the houses (while temporarily housing the travelers in mobile homes) and then build them brand spanking new houses! WTF was wrong with the houses they already had at the taxpayers expense?

As for stupid signage! Don't get me started! Signs everywhere telling you not to do this and not to do that! They have the place polluted with signs. </rant>

LOL, totally agree about the bollards in Trim! My poor car has the bruises to back that up!
Great that the 10 minutes grace for parking has been reinstated

Before the new houses were built, the travellers had really run down kitchenettes and toilets not houses. Was in there once looking for a lost dog and it was an awful place, wouldn't have been suitable for any living creature so am glad to see them in proper houses at last. They're being kept very well so far too, I've noticed.

Used to rant about the flowers myself but have kindof come around to them now. They're nice to look at and the tourists appreciate them - have seen them take photos even! With so many failing hotels and hospitality jobs, if a few of them go home saying how pretty our little country is, well that has to be a good thing.

bladespin

Wonder how much a set of traffic lights costs, council in Navan seem to love collecting the damn things, wish someone would just take an angle grinder it the timewasters.

2qk4u

I dont think its a waste of money, in fact I think its an investment. If the area looks more pleasant and well kept it encourages people to visit and spend some time in the town, it can also help with business investment and encouraging people to move into the area.

bladespin

2qk4u wrote: »

I dont think its a waste of money, in fact I think its an investment. If the area looks more pleasant and well kept it encourages people to visit and spend some time in the town, it can also help with business investment and encouraging people to move into the area.

How so? Even when the town was listed as a litter black spot etc people thronged here, I doubt some flowers will change things, also the county plan makes little provision for attracting business to set up here.

PauloMN

I think the budget for these sort of improvements would be miniscule anyway, and not doing these little jobs would make no difference to the provision of other services like housing etc.. I personally think it's very important even in a recession to try and continue to carry out these small jobs because they do make a difference.

I know in Trim, some of that sort of work is in conjunction with the Tidy Towns folk, so in reality it's costing peanuts to the council, as a lot of the actual work is done by volunteers.

We can't put everything on hold because we're in a bad situation right now. If we canceled every job like that to try and keep the place looking well, I bet there's be 10 times as many post complaining that the place was going to rack and ruin. And you'd still have people living in poverty, people on trolleys in hospitals and so on.

TransportCons

pullandbang wrote: »

What a load of bollards!

You want to see a waste of money?
Come to Trim and see the bollards! We have bollards every few yards along the streets that do nothing other than destroy car doors. Someone on the council must be on commission for every bollard that's stuck in a footpath.

What about the halting site for the travelers?
They had perfectly good houses to live in but what did the council do? Flatten the houses (while temporarily housing the travelers in mobile homes) and then build them brand spanking new houses! WTF was wrong with the houses they already had at the taxpayers expense?

As for stupid signage! Don't get me started! Signs everywhere telling you not to do this and not to do that! They have the place polluted with signs. </rant>

I understand many people's frustration with money being spent on signage. What's the need? Locals already know where they're going? Yes, but the signage is NOT for locals, it's for the people visiting an area, and these signs also act as landmarks for couriers trying to find an address.

The new sign faces are also made of highly reflective material so that they highlight junctions for the road user, increasing road safety!!! We've all seen those green and white bollards either covered in dirt or just knocked over.... They are insufficient! On another road safety issue, these signs are now being manufactured in zones 80kph or more, with special posts so that if a car crashes into them, the posts disintegrate, reducing the likelihood of death on impact.... a design criteria that unfortunately for some some families has come too late.

Finally, all this money being spent on road signage can not be regarded as a waste!! It's keeping hundreds of construction workers, engineers ready-mix lorry drivers and metal fabricators in work through probably the toughest time in history for them to hold on to a job!!

A bit more thought in future would be advised before another criticising comment on road signage projects!

PauloMN

TransportCons wrote: »

A bit more thought in future would be advised before another criticising comment on road signage projects!

Interesting comment, considering you didn't read the post you quoted!

Archeron

TransportCons wrote: »

, with special posts so that if a car crashes into them, the posts disintegrate, reducing the likelihood of death on impact....

I didnt know that, thats pretty cool.

Dodgy road signs are a real bugbear of mine. the amount of times I have been around Ireland, followed road signs and ended up miles from where I wanted to be is unreal. This was down to gobs*ites who think its fun to twist signs around and point them in the wrong direction.

pullandbang

TransportCons wrote: »

Finally, all this money being spent on road signage can not be regarded as a waste!! It's keeping hundreds of construction workers, engineers ready-mix lorry drivers and metal fabricators in work through probably the toughest time in history for them to hold on to a job!!

A bit more thought in future would be advised before another criticising comment on road signage projects!

Indeed.....

Atomic Pineapple

TransportCons wrote: »

these signs are now being manufactured in zones 80kph or more

You'd think they'd just manufacture them in a factory and then bring them to the zone they're meant for!

Anyway, pullandbangs picture highlights it, there's no need for the 3 no entry signs there, two would be enough, the one behind the stop sign serves no purpose at all.

TransportCons

PauloMN wrote: »

Interesting comment, considering you didn't read the post you quoted!

Did the post I quoted not mention signage??

TransportCons

pullandbang wrote: »

Indeed.....

I totally agree with you here.... this is stupid! no need for duplicate signs although I suspect the reason for it may have been a visibility issue at perhaps a staggered crossroads? My argument originally however was that nobody seems to see the benefits of new road signage projects, and there are many! This is probably down to the NRA not giving the public information about these schemes.

As for fingerpost signs being twisted the wrong way, this problem is being eliminated on new signs with anti-rotation fixings being a design requirement as standard.

TransportCons

draffodx wrote: »

You'd think they'd just manufacture them in a factory and then bring them to the zone they're meant for!

Anyway, pullandbangs picture highlights it, there's no need for the 3 no entry signs there, two would be enough, the one behind the stop sign serves no purpose at all.

ok a bit pedantic but fair point.... the word "in" should have been "for" in that sentence.

The picture shows only one duplicate sign. The sign mounted beside the stop sign saying no straight through is the only sign that shouldn't be there. The rest are required. Traffic coming from the opposite direction (i.e. attempting to turn right into the road shown) need that sign in the background.

TransportCons

pullandbang wrote: »

Indeed.....

yea they should remove that telephone pole shouldn't they.... its cluttering up the whole place

Fiskar

draffodx wrote: »

You'd think they'd just manufacture them in a factory and then bring them to the zone they're meant for!

Anyway, pullandbangs picture highlights it, there's no need for the 3 no entry signs there, two would be enough, the one behind the stop sign serves no purpose at all.

Sure, the councils have the household charge money to burn on wasted extra signage now. They look colourful, clean and contracted companies get to put them up. Perception is everything, even with the roundabout planting. Just don't go down the side roads out of town as you might disappear down a pothole.

Fiskar

Just keep filling up one of these and send it into your council

Troika-Box.jpg

TransportCons

Fiskar wrote: »

Just keep filling up one of these and send it into your council

Troika-Box.jpg

Biggest waste I've heard to date is that the NRA have recently downgraded some national primary roads inside the M50.... meaning pretty much all the signs inside the M50 will need replacing, AND about half the M50 signage!!! we're talking millions just to change a road number! madness!!

PauloMN

TransportCons wrote: »

Did the post I quoted not mention signage??

Not specifically road signage, no. There's a lot more signs in Trim aside from road signs.

I don't disagree with some of your points, I just thought the tone of the last part of your post was a little condescending, especially for a first ever post.

TransportCons

PauloMN wrote: »

a little condescending, especially for a first ever post.

???

What does it matter if it's my 1st, 100th or 1000th post? I'm generally frustrated at all complaints about road signage because the majority of complainants are misinformed when it comes to the topic.

Fiskar

So county council, when are we going to see this extremley busy part of the Ramparts walk repaired? When someone has an accident? Certainly worth putting some of that planting money from the roundabouts into repairs like this. Been like this for months. Have emailed this to FF and FG councillors but no cigar so far.

pullandbang

TransportCons wrote: »

As for fingerpost signs being twisted the wrong way, this problem is being eliminated on new signs with anti-rotation fixings being a design requirement as standard.

With all due respect, Anti Rotation fixings were available to all councils (and other sign polluters) back in the 80's. Look back through the Late Late Show archives and you'll see an Irish producer of said fixings as a guest of Gaybo. Nice to see the erectors of these signs catching up with the 80's!

BTW, just for the craic I tired counting the signs on the approach road to Trim from Summerhill this evening. I think it was 9 or 10 from 500 yards out in to the roundabout - and that was just one side of the road!

pullandbang

TransportCons wrote: »

yea they should remove that telephone pole shouldn't they.... its cluttering up the whole place

The telephone pole is useful. It was already there so why not use it to put those signs on instead of digging a new hole and sticking another useless pole in the path - or is that just to give employment?

pullandbang

TransportCons wrote: »

with special posts so that if a car crashes into them, the posts disintegrate, reducing the likelihood of death on impact.... a design criteria that unfortunately for some some families has come too late.

Statistics please.

How many fatalities have occurred on Irish roads in the past three years as a result of cars crashing into signs?

I don't watch the news that often, but I certainly can't recall any such event ever! Apologies and condolences to the bereaved if I'm wrong.

TransportCons

pullandbang wrote: »

The telephone pole is useful. It was already there so why not use it to put those signs on instead of digging a new hole and sticking another useless pole in the path - or is that just to give employment?

They don't want to mix signage with telecoms/esb property, results in complications with route maintenance/who owns what. by right, all services should have been buried whenever the roads/footpaths were last done. The biggest problem often though is that the councils don't get enough money to do one clean sweep of a route and correct everything at once.

I'd agree with a lot of posts in this though that the council's activities seem to be poorly managed and coordinated.