Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Commuting, Day rides, Audax, Incidents, etc.
mercalia
Posts: 14630
Joined: 22 Sep 2013, 10:03pm
Location: london South

Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by mercalia »

he gambled and he lost.
Psamathe
Posts: 17647
Joined: 10 Jan 2014, 8:56pm

Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by Psamathe »

mercalia wrote:he gambled and he lost.

Which, under our present regime means he will be "bailed-out" and changes put in place to make sure he makes plenty of profit for the foreseeable future.

(Still being a cynic)

Ian
iviehoff
Posts: 2411
Joined: 20 Jan 2009, 4:38pm

Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by iviehoff »

Psamathe wrote:
mercalia wrote:he gambled and he lost.

Which, under our present regime means he will be "bailed-out" and changes put in place to make sure he makes plenty of profit for the foreseeable future.

I think you are suffering from a complete misunderstanding of who gets bail-outs, which is only the favoured few. Certainly not small private businessman like him.
iviehoff
Posts: 2411
Joined: 20 Jan 2009, 4:38pm

Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by iviehoff »

Psamathe wrote:So will the guy now be seeking compensation from the council for their failure to meet their own schedules (properly); for misleading him over the duration of the works; etc. And in our compensation culture I would not be surprised if he did (and then won).

No chance. He was not in any kind of an situation where he could seek to rely upon what the council said. It would be different if he had a contractual arrangement with the council.
Tonyf33
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Joined: 17 Nov 2007, 3:31pm
Location: Letchworth N.Herts

Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by Tonyf33 »

Sounds like a tax evasion scam to me and people have bought it hook line and sinker. £150k to lay a 365metre road out of chippings & a hut and some signage :lol: 150k running costs over 15 weeks (he was quoted as saying it cost £1,000 a day to run it!), how much was he paying his staff? One person in the hut @ £7/hr over that period of time (24/7) would be roughly £20k, where was the other bits being spent on?
You can bet your bottom dollar he's paying himself as 'project manager a fair whack and his missus as asst. project manager/admin and the farmer a daily rate.

1st week October they 'reported' 100k paying vehicles (in 9 weeks being open), it's now 6 weeks on from that..one two miss a few springs to mind 8)

Sure the council have acted like scabby so and so's in every single aspect of this but I think he is giving it plenty of pony and creative accounting.
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honesty
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Joined: 16 Mar 2012, 3:33pm
Location: Somerset
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Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by honesty »

saw him on the local BBC breakfast show and he said something along the lines of that the land owner was the real unsung hero as he hadn't yet got a penny for the use of his land. First though was "well pay him then", but the inference to me seemed to be he was expecting the council to reimburse the land owner.
Postboxer
Posts: 1929
Joined: 24 Jul 2013, 5:19pm

Re: Private 'toll road' - cyclists not welcome.

Post by Postboxer »

In the interview on the BBC he says he had two staff 24 hours a day, paid £10 an hour. I think he said most of the rest was liability insurance but think he also says there was a manager on site the whole time too. Seems unnecessary to have two staff all night long.
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