An expensive mistake?

Along the A6 a it passes through Derbyshire, the observant traveller can see new bus stops with electronic displays:

The display itself looks like this:

The signs have been in position for ages (years rather than months) but have never worked. An enquiry to Derbyshire County Council elicited the information that the funding came from a government grant, and that there was no deadline for successful operation - there are technical difficulties "at the bus end" - and the current position may continue for "some time to come".

I've made a Freedom of Information request to find out how much the project has cost, and when - if ever - it is likely to work.

I'm greatly in favour of good information - where it is useful. I'm not sure that the basic concept here is good: the displays aren't even big enough to show a scrolling display that might convey a really useful message ("the 19.43 has been cancelled" or "the 15.45 is 34 minutes late - catch the next service xxx to Bakewell and change to service xxx there)". Instead, they will just show the number of minutes until the next bus. If the last bus of the day has gone, does it show the number of minutes until the first bus the next day? There doesn't seem to be enough space to show  a value of 720, for example.

Update 2010. My FOI request was answered (after a complaint to the Information Commissioner): the project has cost £324,000 and has resulted in 8 non-working bus stops being errected. There is no date for completion of the project. Details at http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/electronic_bus_stop_displays

NB - I found out what the display "T" means. Not "Testing" as I had guessed, but ... "Look at the timetable".

Lazy Local Authorities

Want to sing carols around a Christmas Tree and sell Mulled Wine? You'll need a Temporary Events Notice - costing £21.

Laying aside the question of whether this sort of event should need a licence, just look at what you have to do to get a licence.

Can you apply online? No - certainly not in the Derbyshire Dales area. Pay by Credit or Debit Card? Nope.

You CAN download a PDF form - but this isn't enabled for online filling-in, so you have to print it out and fill it in by hand. (With details that are virtually the same as you filled in last year but because you can't save it, you have to start all over again - thanks).

And then you have to send the five-page form to two separate places. And in one of those envelopes you have to send three copies of the five pages - so it will need to be sent as a Large Letter, which costs more (and for which you are unlikely to have stamps at home, so requiring a trip to a Post Office).

We've applied for lots of these licences, and have never had a single query. So it seems that there isn't a lot of consideration going on at the Council end. That makes £21 seem a pretty generous payment for receiving a form, checking that it isn't anything exciting, and posting back a rubber-stamped copy to the applicant.

If the Public Sector wants to avoid an anti-Public-Service backlash, how about a campaign to deliver reasonable Customer Service? Nothing fancy - just the simple, obvious stuff. In this case: online application would be pretty obvious. If that is just too ambitious, then how about the council doing the copying? Not many private individuals have photocopiers - councils tend to have several. And it would save on postage, and the environmental cost of moving extra sheets of paper around.

And how about having the council send a copy to the Police, rather than requiring the applicant to make another copy and send it separately?

The current system stinks of authoritarianism and arrogance. Not clever.