Software problem makes £340,000 bus signs ‘unreliable’

Derbyshire County Council has admitted that a software issue means that £340,000 worth of bus information signs may never work.

The boards, which advise when buses are due, were bought three years ago, but 35 remain in storage and eight have not been switched on.

After the purchase bus operator Trent Barton told the council the software used for the signs was “unreliable”.

The council has been unable to find better replacement software.

The Conservative-run authority said it was still trying to resolve the issue – along with an additional problem affecting 25 of its other bus information signs which have been out of order for several months.

It said it could not rule out that both sets of signs would never work again.

What a complete waste of money.

Are we returning to the Dark Ages?

The controversial plans of the county coucil to permanently switch off nearly 900 Derbyshire street lights in a bid to save £400,000 a year are sending us in the East Midlands back to the dark ages.

The authority is considering turning off up to 60,000 of its 89,000 lamps between midnight and 5.30am, with one per cent – 900 – switched off permanently in some rural areas and non-residential areas.

What effect will this have on crime and people feeling safe in their communities? and what about school children affected by the permanent switch off?

Letters of concern to Derbyshire County Council please.

Derbyshire has a new Poet Laureate

Derbyshire has a new Poet Laureate. Matt Black  was unveiled by Derbyshire County Council yesterday and was described as “An entertaining and thought-provoking writer, who composes poems for adults and children”.

Matt is the fourth Derbyshire Poet Laureate following on from Peak District writer Ann Atkinson and will be in his new role until September 2013.

“There was a young woman from Bakewell…………………”

Time to park the rows over tickets

A very good letter appeared in the Derbyshire Times from Cllr Simon Spencer who is Derbyshire County Council deputy leader and cabinet member for  highways and transport concerning blue badges, parking tickets and parking officers.

Everyone gets irate about this subject matter but having read the letter I have a new sense of responsibility.

Read it at http://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/community/letters/time_to_park_the_rows_over_tickets_1_3813152
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Dovedale Loos at Risk

Ideas are being sought to help avoid the closure of public toilets at a Peak District beauty spot visited by about a million people each year.

The Peak District National Park Authority, which faces budget cuts of £1.7m by 2015, said the toilets at Dovedale cost more than £17,000 a year.

It wants to hear suggestions from local people and organisations by the end of October.

The toilets are likely to shut in March 2012 if a solution is not found.

They are situated within Dovedale‘s car park, which is privately owned, with the surrounding land belonging to the National Trust.

Elsewhere the park authority own other facilities nearby, such as car parks or snack kiosks which help support the associated toilets, but in Dovedale this is not the case.

Residents of the nearby village of Thorpe, which many visitors pass through on their way to Dovedale, have raised concerns that the closure could increase the numbers using their public toilets.

The answer to me is straight forward. The owner of the car park who collects £00000000000?s a year should provide the toilets as a matter of courtesy. Problem solved.

Derbyshire County Council to pay farmers to clear snow

Farmers with their tractors would be paid a minimum of £200 if they sign-up to help clear snow from rural areas this winter, Derbyshire County Council said.

The authority said it needed help from farmers to remove snow and ice from roads and lanes their gritters could not reach in previous years.

Wouldn’t getting the terminally unemployed to do it be cheaper?

Top farmers’ market returns

THE UK’s second biggest farmers’ market returns this weekend, with over 80 stalls of specialist products and crafts.

Derbyshire Dales District Council’s multi award-winning Bakewell Farmers’ Markettakes place this Saturday, 24 September.