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Sheffield to have best roads in the UK


Mecky

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Oh Rosy, please, this is Sheffield Forum. How long will it be before we get some muppets complaining about the roadworks AND saying that they miss the potholes and want them brought back? :roll:;)

Thank you mapleboy for introducing a smile into an otherwise gloomy day ...

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Well , compare two countries: Here, where the Government steals 3/4 of the money paid in road taxes and spends it on other things instead, leading us to have only 5% more motorways than we had 25 years ago.

 

Or France, where the motorways are funded and built by private companies, like Shell, who then get the tolls back - and spend them on building MORE motorways - so France now has THREE TIMES the motorways it had 25 years ago...

 

France has a land area of approximately 211 thousand square miles. The United Kingdom's land area is less than 95 thousand square miles.

 

The population of France is about 60 million, about the same as the UK.

 

A bit of quick arithmetic tells us there are more than twice as many of us in the UK to each square mile as there are in France. That makes constructing fast motorways and high speed railway lines a lot more difficult here than in France where there's so much more land available. Look at a map and you'll see France is nearer square in shape, while the UK is long and relatively thin.

 

I've travelled nose to tail in all lanes down the Autoroute Du Soleil, stop starting past Lyon, on several occasions. Crossing northern France I've travelled 20 miles without seeing another car! Depends on the month, time of day and the road.

 

I hate driving on congested British motorways, but my main complaint with those in France is boredom!

 

However, we're talking about Sheffield city roads. Compare some of the suburban roads in France and they're not so different to here! They do build lots of new suburban roads, which look very nice for a few years, but older roads suffer neglect much the same as ours.

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Make a note - bet the first roads to re-surfaced are nearest to the councellors homes!
They will also get their driveways and patios resurfaced. If they live on a busy road they will also get their own set of traffic signals, to stop the passing traffic, so they can get off their drives easier.
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Please feel free to call me thick ... but I don't understand something . Private Finance Initiatives , by their very title , involve private finance . So where's the private finance coming from on this "PFI" project ????

 

As far as I understand it , the Dept of Transport puts some money in , and SCC (Shefield taxpayer ) puts in the rest . Can someone please explain ?

 

How does the private sector ( Amey / Ferrovial ) intend to profit , because there MUST be some money-making profit element to this , for which the taxpayer will no doubt get shafted yet again . Can anyone from the council please clarify ?

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