Are Carmarthenshire County Council watching old videos for the end of term? Is TimeBandits a favourite on heavy rotation? I've long hypothesised that they have a time machine in County Hall - it's the only rational explanation for many of the mysterious ways that Carmarthenshire County Council "works". The supporting evidence is growing.
Yesterday a Public Notice was tacked up on many telegraph poles in Margaret Street (pictured), dated tomorrow.
It warns of seven weeks of mayhem, with the closure of 66m of road from the junction with College Street, commencing (next) Monday 22 July 2019. Even with most residents and business owners wanting an improvement to the daily traffic flow/congestion, the letter raises more questions:
1) How can a Public Notice dated 17 July 2019 be posted two days earlier?
2) The Council have been (literally) scheming for years about this junction. So how is this a "continuation of the Temporary Emergency Closure"? When was it closed before? How can something schemed in advance - I dare not use the term "planned" - be classed as an emergency?
3) Why, when one phones to ask what access arrangements have been made (ha ha) for businesses [let alone reasonable notice], does one get told they've phoned the wrong number and have to call another member of staff on a different number?
4) "Ble Mae Wendi?"
If Mark James, the former Chief Executive, retired on 9 June 2019, how is he writing legal notices five weeks following? What's Wendi Walters been doing? Are we paying her? Are we paying them both? Have the departments scheming, forgetting VAT, misnaming historic buildings, applying for road closures and writing public notices all missed the memo/press-release/media-coverage & toe-cringing Council meetings that marked the change-over?
Is this road closure even lawful? The 20MPH speed restriction has been unenforceable since the Council flattened the sign two years ago, and discarded it on the abutment where it still lies today. The name of the Chief Executive is more than just an imprimatur of authority, the office holder is charged with considerable obligations and duties.
Perhaps the truth isn't quite so satisfyingly surreal. Maybe Carmarthenshire County Council has just flipped into auto-pilot and this questionable Public Notice is just another quality job. Let's hope the tarmacadam is finished to a higher standard, and without isolating businesses from their customers & suppliers this summer.
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