Idle ruminations

We recently had some work done to a roundabout on the A65, the main road from Leeds out to Otley/Ilkley and Skipton which runs through the suburban towns of Horsforth, Rawdon, Yeadon and Guiseley. The roundabout in question is between Rawdon and Yeadon and know as the JCT roundabout for reasons I won't bore you with.

The work was just the addition of some pedestrian paths and only took three or four days of work to complete. Obviously it was scheduled to last four weeks and the work remained outstanding for nearly three weeks after the noted end date but that's the public sector.

The funniest thing of all was that on the Sunday afternoon all the plant machinery, material and portaloo's etc arrived and then Monday morning was a hive of activity setting up road restrictions and other ways to slow down rush hour. After that workmen were only visible on site for two reasons. First of all from 11.30am to 2.00pm you could see them in their cabs drinking tea and reading the paper or in Sainsburys nearby buying sandwiches. Never actually saw them doing work. Except ... funnily enough whenever a guy in a suit wearing a hard hat turned up then all of a sudden there were about 20 workmen scurrying about. Strange that ? Oh my council tax just went up £ 10 a month as well. Brilliant.