Matt Bawden

I've no idea why you try to goad me I only ever try to help the public and that public includes my family and friends, I try to do the right thing blah, blah, blah? In answer to your question: Fairy Lights!

That is hilarious

Fine thanks, I think you are mistaking smug for with being open and frank.

In a way yes, to indicate what doesn't enrage me and what does. Its very sad that you seem to think there are paedo's lurking round every corner and that this irrational fear stops you from being concerned about taxpayer money being wasted on badly executed roadworks and inefficiency in government. Personally worrying about protecting my kids against imaginary child abusers hiding in my garden hardly ever prevents me from going about my life. You see there you go again, taking something and twisting it until it makes you at first appear quite the comedian but on further inspection one finds that you are merely lacking in a sufficient IQ to comprehend the difference between something that angers me but doesn't mean I fear it and something that doesn't anger me, so I will try to explain it in more simple terms so that you might be able to understand, ok, here goes: The things that anger you don't anger me, the things you think I'm scared of don't actually scare me they just anger me......there, is that better for you? I hope so because other than draw pictures for you in the vain hope that you will be able to understand I really don't think that you'll be able to 'get it' and will continue to attempt to be the forum comedian and falling at the first hurdle as you so often do.

In a way yes, to indicate what doesn't enrage me and what does.

Well those from the North can approach Douglas via Ballanard Ro.........not, that won't work, ok via Governors Bridge. no road works there..........oh apparently there are. Errrrrrm. Perhaps through Onchan Traffic lights. Perhaps they could work from home. That may well be the overall strategy, park & ride, walking and cycling or work from home.... A reduction in pollution, reduced congestion, more money in people's pockets, less wear and tear on the roads, safer for pedestrians......everyone's a winner :-) So you've stupidly revealed the DOIs masterplan Matt. To fuck up the roads so badly that we'll all be wanting to travel by bus and keep those bus drivers in their lovely overpaid jobs? They are certainty going about this the right way if that is the plan. I have no idea if that's the 'Masterplan' or not, I was attempting to lighten the thread up a bit, hence the smiley at the end. I and my wife are travelling public too and we came along Peel Road this afternoon with three tired out children (Kids sports day) and we were in a queue for quite a while but hey, it's just one of those things, it's a bit inconvenient true but when measured against people whose relatives or friends died as a result of a train crash or being shot by government forces or rebel forces or extreme weather in Sounth America or Australia then it really does pale in comparison and hardly warrants a mention. You are such a smug little tool. Who is comparing roadworks to mass rapid transit death in Spain? The main point in this thread has been that, regardless of what people are prepared to put up with or not, 80 weeks is utterly pathetic as a work schedule on such a major road, and more thought should be expected to go into other road works like Governors, and Ballanard as they exacerbate the situation and add unnecessary extra pressure that turns something thats irritating into a total pain in the ass. Your problem, like a lot of IOMG workers, is that you've lost all sense of perspective on what is acceptable or not, because in every situation you're right and everyone else is wrong, and how dare the public even dare to question that it might be any different. We're here to just put up with (and pay for) any shit you create and if we don't think its up to scratch - tough shit that's just the way it is. If a business took that attitude it would have gone bust years ago. If you took a faulty telly back to Waltons and they said "Tough shit its a cheap telly thats just the way it is, what do you expect us to do about it? We're the experts on everything and anything and you know fuck all about nothing so just do one" you wouldn't be using them again would you? Apparently you know me so well it would be pointless responding as you already know the outcome...I bow down to your superiority. In all seriousness, I really didn't mean to come across as smug, I was merely attempting to contrast between something worthy to feel anger about and another to feel not so angry about. You, along with anyone and everyone else are free to air your views and in fact if you feel that strongly about it contact your MHK who will then contact the department member and so on and so forth and I really don't mean that in a smug way, what I mean is that as I said previously there may well be a strategy in place with genuine reasons and if you contact the right people they may be able to explain this as I sincerely don't know anymore and it would be pure speculation on my part to hazard a guess. Personally there are far more significant things that anger me than this or any other financially orientated things, in fact there aren't that many things that do anger me and the only ones that spring to mind are the protection of and continuation of paedophile rings and anything else that harms or hinders children, I'm sorry that I don't share your sense of priorities.

Only time will tell but I doubt it.

You didn't do Peel Road by any chance first time round did you, I only ask because it's only getting re-done because it was in such poor shape and has been since atleast I came to the island over 25 years ago?

Unfortunately, living in the Isle of Man, a train crash would hardly hurt anyone unless a stray cow had wandered onto the line; the government forces wear police uniforms [for another thread] while the rebels are mainly people like LDV whose only experience of 'shots' has been from small glasses in nightclubs. Extreme weather has also been touched on in a thread about the terrific heat - so hot that the reservoirs are a little bit below capacity and there's the ever-present threat of gorse fires causing damage running into tens of pounds. Therefore, there's little left for us to be upset about and so we tend to turn our attention to the lazy tw-ts who require 18 months to redo a bit of road rather less than a mile long. Well I guess Lonan that as either or both a tax payer and/or vehicle license payer if you feel that they are lazy tw*ts then you would be more than happy to go down to Peel Road and speak face to face and tell them they are lazy tw*ts? I am more than confident that if you do, they will be able to take ten minutes to explain the whole thing to you to the point that you may even accept their explanation.

I attempted to lighten it up with the previous post which wasn't acknowledged therefore I understood this to mean that people were continuing to be serious which I then compared with more serious global events....................you pillock.

Well those from the North can approach Douglas via Ballanard Ro.........not, that won't work, ok via Governors Bridge. no road works there..........oh apparently there are. Errrrrrm. Perhaps through Onchan Traffic lights. Perhaps they could work from home. That may well be the overall strategy, park & ride, walking and cycling or work from home.... A reduction in pollution, reduced congestion, more money in people's pockets, less wear and tear on the roads, safer for pedestrians......everyone's a winner :-) So you've stupidly revealed the DOIs masterplan Matt. To fuck up the roads so badly that we'll all be wanting to travel by bus and keep those bus drivers in their lovely overpaid jobs? They are certainty going about this the right way if that is the plan. I have no idea if that's the 'Masterplan' or not, I was attempting to lighten the thread up a bit, hence the smiley at the end. I and my wife are travelling public too and we came along Peel Road this afternoon with three tired out children (Kids sports day) and we were in a queue for quite a while but hey, it's just one of those things, it's a bit inconvenient true but when measured against people whose relatives or friends died as a result of a train crash or being shot by government forces or rebel forces or extreme weather in Sounth America or Australia then it really does pale in comparison and hardly warrants a mention.

Well those from the North can approach Douglas via Ballanard Ro.........not, that won't work, ok via Governors Bridge. no road works there..........oh apparently there are. Errrrrrm. Perhaps through Onchan Traffic lights. Perhaps they could work from home. That may well be the overall strategy, park & ride, walking and cycling or work from home.... A reduction in pollution, reduced congestion, more money in people's pockets, less wear and tear on the roads, safer for pedestrians......everyone's a winner :-)

The Site Works Manager for the Peel Road Scheme is doing an excellent job and his standard of work is second to none, I regularly walk past the site and only when it's brew time or there's a discussion between management/design team and operatives or are taking a breather are they 'not working', there's more to the scheme than just hacking up the place and then laying tarmac, alterations need to be made when during the works things are exposed that weren't and couldn't be accounted for or predicted and these alterations/deviations need to be discussed and planned. You'd be the first to moan and whine if they all went in like a bull in a china shop and then had to dig places up again due to not being done properly in the first place, sure breakages, faults and leaks not withstanding. It's been roasting weather wise, would you have the guys doing the manual work slavishly work non-stop until they collapsed and then replaced with another operative so long as the scheme is done in what you personally class as an acceptable duration?

How many residents would not be able to access their property if the road between the bottom of Belmont Hill and the QB was closed? Look, I understand why you're defensive, but the fact remains that your entire department is poorly managed, has scant regard for the residents of the Island and is mostly comprised of illiterate chimps without opposable thumbs. The number of concurrent projects that are attempted is staggering, when everyone outside your collection of inbred mouthbreathers can see that a less disruptive approach is for you to put more men on a smaller number of projects and get them finished quicker. Every project has a number of man days it requires to complete. More men on the project means less real time. If you can't see that either then you're no better than the workshy cretins you claim to "manage", Oh, and I make no apology for wanting it done quicker. When I employ tradesmen, I want them to do the quickest and most professional job. As a taxpayer..... I see where you are coming from, The residents up by Peregrine House would be affected along with the people who live between the Peregrine House entrance and the entrance for the Belmont Carvill Homes estate. I understand what you are saying but it doesn't always work out that more operatives means a reduction in scheduled duration, although I agree in many cases it can. The trouble with doing one scheme and then starting another upon completion is that it spreads the whole duration of all schemes over a longer period, for example: you know when you start refurbishing your house and by the time you finish one room its on to the next and then by time you've finished all the rooms it's time to do the whole lot again, well this is similar, kind of, or the roads are in such a state that they all desperately need doing, again I speak as an individual as I am not aware of the overall strategy my Department has planned. I'm pretty sure the Dept wouldn't wish to inconvenience and annoy everyone just for the sheer hell of it and I would have imagined that all options would have been explored.

I recently watched these two and they blew me away: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1716777/ & http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1855199/?ref_=sr_1

Like it or not, the pavement is for pedestrians, the road is for vehicles. You're on a bike, you're a vehicle. That you don't think that way says a lot about why cycling is considered dangerous. Agree with Ans too, accommodating the half open road must slow the process down. Just close it, deal with the divert for a shorter time and get it over with. Er....what about the business's, residents and fuel deliveries etc.....is it bollox to them cos you and ANS want it done quicker?

I will never understand that either. Obviously people need and are entitled to breaks, but how can it be efficient for everyone to stop at 10 regardless of what they are doing? Surely it's more productive to break when the job you are doing presents a natural break rather than at a specific time? I assume if someone finishes one task at 9:50 they aren't going to start a new one until after playtime, so just break then. Likewise if you are in the middle of something at 10 crack on until its done rather than just down tools regardless. Its a totally alien concept to anyone outside the construction industry, and I can't help thinking that staggered breaks would lead to a better public perception. Obviously if you are working in a team on a task you have to break at the same time, but I can't believe the most productive time to do it is exactly the same every day regardless of what work is going on. But you have to have contracted hours with contracted times for breaks and lunch otherwise it's open to abuse, obviously if the specific task you are undertaking allows for stopping at a more relevant time eg when the task ends but before another begins, however if there are a group of operatives ALL participating on a specific task where the task depends on all aspects being done on unison, say road laying for example then it makes perfect sense for all to stop together and as road laying is a continuous thing then stopping at 1000hrs makes sense too, it also means that operatives are all together so if any health and safety issues, toolbox talks, amendments to plans, deviations to schedules etc. can be discussed afterwards. In essence, it's a little bit different than working in an office ;-)

1000 hrs is generally morning brew or break time.

Are you kidding? They are making fantastic progress especially when you consider there is major re-construction involved and the fact that the utilities and local authority supplies have been re-routed and/or replaced along with a major overhaul and residing of the storm water drainage, in addition it is very high quality, and I'm not saying that because its my Department but even as a general lay person I think equally the same.

I could understand that if it meant everyone working on the same bit of road, but you could do two parts of the same road at the same time surely? Slim, I never posted that???

Agreed, and in a few years time with the Prom done and the former Villiers site sorted, Middlemarch site, former Bus station site, Summerland site and all the Strand Street etc. regeneration all completed Douglas should look amazing.

That may sound like the best way to do it and has likely been considered but the trouble is you are dealing with a job that is limited in how many people/ machines you can fit on the same site at the same time. You could put more resources on Peel Road if you worked on more sections of it at once but that would mean much bigger delays to traffic it it was even possible. It's a bit like creating a soup, you can only have so many people preparing it, cooking it and then presenting it, if you add more people it doesn't make it any quicker, as the proverb says 'too many cooks spoil the broth'.

I'm with you on this one Bees, I accompany my children whilst they ride their bikes on the pavement and as much as we go to the prom or Noble's park or even out on the private road by our garage there are times where they need to ride around the neighbourhood and there is no way I am having them on the fecking road yet so I'll quite happily have the police speak with us.

Why bother

Catholics weren't/aren't they............says it all for me to be honest.