AT long last we have the answer to the question that I began asking last spring - the cost of Les Jones' idiocy is so far £400,000. I say so far because it obviously is unfinished - unless the block wall is the latest trend in minimalist street architecture. So let's say half a million by the time it's all complete.

Now let's take a car journey coming onto the Ring Road off Birmingham Street: Jones' Idiocy at Foster Street, pedestrian lights at the Crystal Centre, new traffic lights off Enville Street, new pedestrian lights by the Bonded Warehouse, masses of new lights at Trinity Grange, lights at the Corbett, lights at the Fish, pedestrian lights mid-way from there to Brettle Lane, Brettle Lane lights, pedestrian lights at Stuart Crystal, heaven alone knows what we're getting at Brierley Hill Road and we haven't even got to Kingswinford yet!

What is the gestation period of traffic lights I wonder? Round here it seems to be about three months. Add to the above, pedestrian lights on the little used Church Street, great dollops of concrete springing up all over the place purporting to be traffic islands - how much have we spent now? Well over a million pounds without a doubt.

What an appalling mis-direction of our Council Tax. What an appalling indictment of our Tory Council's spending priorities. They squander money on traffic lights that few people want and no-one actually needs and in the same year close Beauty Bank Primary for lack of funds, target to close Cradley High for the same reason; they leave elderly people trapped in their homes for want of a dignifying toe nail cutting and bathing service and they refuse to fund a bus service for Special Needs children.

Before anyone leaps up to tell me these are different budget headings and money can't be transferred: I KNOW. What most appalls me is the philosophy behind the allocation and distribution of funds in the first place - put simply it's traffic lights instead of people. David Cameron can say what he likes but leopards do not change their spots: three years in control in Dudley and the real Tory philosophy starts to appear - Thatcher, it seems, is alive and sitting on Dudley Council.

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