I’d Forster some light reading

4:44pm Friday 27th June 2008

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I AM, as you all know, a simple man and have little knowledge about the workings of electricity.

In fact, the first time I ever tried changing a light bulb many years ago, I ended up cutting my hand.

My flatmate was ecstatic on his return to find the light working, but wasn't so happy to discover the trail of blood on his carpet.

So I tend to hesitate before spouting off on anything technical.

However, the new traffic lights at the junction of Gomm Road and the A40, High Wycombe, have rather gotten my goat.

I moaned about them two weeks ago in this column, and was surprised at the level of support I received from readers.

However, a startling new thought struck me this week.

The lights are operated by the same county council which has controversially insisted on saving taxpayers' money by turning off street lights all over the county.

Around 1,000 lights were switched off in south Bucks this year in an effort to save £85,000 and cut the carbon footprint. Apparently, it's part of a groundbreaking trial.

Lots of residents are pretty unhappy, but the council's transportation cabinet member, Val Letheren, has stuck to her guns to save us the cash, and has insisted it's safe.

So fair enough, we all want to save dosh and councillors need to make tough decisions on our behalf.

But, how is it then I wondered that the same council is packing the London Road full of annoying - and possibly pointless - traffic lights that surely guzzle electricity?

My patience was further drained yesterday when I was forced to stop on the A40 at the Gomm Road red signal. I waited 20 seconds - and yes I was sad enough to check my watch - before the lights let me go again.

I wouldn't have minded if there had been loads of traffic, but there was not one single vehicle coming from Gomm Road so my 20-second wait was indeed completely and utterly pointless.

I have now officially written to Val on your behalf to ask what's going on and I'll be meeting up with her soon hopefully.

I also spoke yesterday with Alison Donovan in the Bucks County Council press office who helpfully answered a few of my concerns.

The lights at the junction are low-energy ones and use about 20 per cent of the power of the old lights.

The signals at Gomm Road have meant that ten illuminated signs and four illuminated bollards associated with the old roundabout have been taken away, so the electricity costs have been more or less neutralised'.

It's also worth noting, the signals at the junction didn't cost taxpayers anything because they were paid for by a Government grant.

Again this is all fair enough, but I had another question for Val and the council. If traffic lights are so integral to our town and county, then why haven't ones up at Marlow Hill been working for the past fortnight?

I've driven to Wycombe High School on two successive Sundays and found traffic anarchy.

The answer is that there is a fault with a control panel and there have been problems with synchronisation at the lights by Daws Hill Lane.

The council is still waiting for a certain part to arrive for this panel.

So there we have it. Our traffic systems have now become totally dependent on new technology which sometimes breaks down and which is often difficult to fix.

This all rather brings to mind the classic story written 99 years ago by EM Forster.

It was called "The Machine Stops" and told of a futuristic society totally dependent on technology.

I quote: "The Machine," they exclaimed, "feeds us and clothes us and houses us; through it we speak to one another, through it we see one another, in it we have our being."

But one day, the machine that hummed constantly throughout everyone's lives stopped - and the consequences were catastrophic due to people's total reliance on the thing.

I hope Bucks County Council stocks this book in its gleaming new library in High Wycombe - because I'd say it was recommended reading for councillors.