Natural yogurt.

Hey Boris, how about some joined up thinking?

Coming home from London last night I already knew that the M4 westbound was closed between junctions 1 and 3. So, rather than go chug, chug, chug along the old A4 past Hounslow with the inevitable delays I went the smart way out of London along the A40. All was going smoothly until suddenly all 3 lanes of traffic stopped. The traffic then crawled very slowly for a long way and I saw a sign that lanes 2 and 3 were closed further along. The traffic edged forward until the main A40 westbound was reduced to a single lane. More crawling ensued until I got to the Hanger Lane underpass which had been closed, so all traffic had to go up the exit ramp to the traffic lights of the gyratory system. These traffic lights only let a few vehicles forward at a time because normally with the underpass open there is little traffic entering the junction. I drove back onto the A40 which was still restricted to 1 lane, went past just one guy with a pneumatic drill and then was on my merry way.

This whole delay has cost my employer 60 minutes in overtime. Now, think just how much the total cost was to all the people traveling out of London at that time? The Hanger Lane underpass runs under the North Circular Road (A406) and the M4 was closed also with it's junction with this same North Circular Road. Why was there not some joined up thinking here? It was plain stupid to close both westbound routes going out of London at the same radius from the West End. If they must close roads to do repairs, then surely do not close both parallel routes at adjacent points and at the same time. This was madness and an example of bad management by Boris Johnson's team. We live in a 24/7 society so why the hell did they close the M4 motorway at 21.00? Surely working within a 24/7 culture they should have closed the motorway at maybe midnight or 01.00 and not make everyone suffer. Joined up thinking it certainly was not. It is maddening to me that our elected representatives cannot plan roadworks sensibly but they have no difficulty in claiming expenses as a perk of their jobs.