In Passing

Surely everyone in the country is now familiar with the mantra that we need to walk and cycle more and use our cars a bit less? Well, one sector of the economy where this message apparently isn’t getting across is scrap metal dealing. How do we know? Well, because of an article that appeared in The Times last week penned by Huddersfield-based scrap metal dealer Mark Schofield. Schofield’s aim was to explain why more laws are not the solution to the current plague of metal theft from railway lines, church roofs and the like. In doing so, he explained how scrap merchants currently assess legitimate metal suppliers, revealing this fascinating little nugget: “We refuse customers on foot, on bicycles and in taxis at the request of the police.” Schofield suggested the policy was of “questionable effectiveness”, adding: “Can we just assume someone is guilty merely because they do not own a car?” Mr Schofield surely deserves a lifetime membership to ACT Travelwise for that comment. Isn’t it time the DfT prepared some travel planning advice for scrap dealers?

We know the Highways Agency has had a tough budget settlement but hadn’t realised just how bad things were until reading about Cornwall Council’s plan to take over the Agency’s roads. “The Highways Agency has a policy not to pick up litter on trunk road verges,” Cornwall reports. “In April the council undertook a litter pick of its own [in which] over 500 bags of rubbish were collected.” Cornwall has a further bone to pick with the HA’s landscaping of the A38 Dobwalls bypass completed in 2010. “The HA adopted a landscaping concept of natural regeneration,” says the council. “The result of this is an apparently barren and unfinished approach to Dobwalls.”

An interesting little anecdote was reported in the Mail on Sunday last weekend, which, if true, may assist understanding of this week’s Government announcements about road building and airport expansion. The story concerns the Prime Minister’s director of strategy, Steve Hilton. According to the MoS, during a recent meeting with Department of Energy and Climate Change officials to discuss climate change, Hilton remarked: “I’m not sure I believe in it”. This prompted an astonished DECC official to inquire: “Did I just hear that correctly?” Hilton, who is credited with coining the Tories’ election slogan ‘Vote Blue Go Green’, responded by saying: “Climate change arguments are highly complex”, and added: “My focus has always been more on using green issues to improve the quality of life.”