Prediction over roads was right - Letters, May 17
A picture from March 6 1998 when a few ‘lucky’ passengers are given an exclusive preview of the new ‘Oblivion’ ride at Alton Towers, a terrifying, vertical drop ride, in which thrill-seekers plunge nearly 200ft face first, at a speed of 110 Km and a maximum G-force of 4.5
Prediction over roads was right
Back in the 1980s I worked in Birmingham. One of my colleagues read the Daily Telegraph and I read quite a lot of it - mainly for the excellent sports coverage - but I remember well an article then about the state of our roads.
Basically the author was writing about the fact that 'then' our roads needed a lot of money spent on them to avoid the roads becoming like the roads in the third world. Well now, our roads are often described as being like a moonscape or brought here from the third world.
The man who wrote the doom and gloom article forecast that our roads would deteriorate to the state they're in now in 10-15 years without millions of pounds being spent on them bringing them up to a 'decent' standard. He was a few years out, but still we need to spend a lot more than our Government are prepared to. Unless we, as a nation, invest in improving our roads network there will be little point in the grand gestures of promising one and a half million new homes in the great five year plan if the road network is unable to effectively connect these homes to places of commerce, industry and leisure.
