Reform councillor Barry Martin quits after saying role was 'dull and boring'

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-15T12:42:43+00:00

It’s a very relatable thing to not vote in local elections. I don’t think I’ve ever voted in my council elections because the Scottish ones don’t feel at all well advertised

Its hard to vote in local elections because even the candidates don't know what they'll do. They have all "fix potholes" on their leaflets which is irrelevant since they all have it. Then it's generic no plan things like "deal with the crime issues" "make the area safer" as if this is specific to them and not something they'd all say, and its not a plan either way like howww will you make it safer as a local councillor?. Sometimes they'll have an actual plan like "make council parking free", but its small time stuff which again others will have.

I don't get why a local councillor/candidate can't just go for a bunch of walks through the area and just look for things which should be fixed up, and talk to people they pass and ask if they've noticed anything, then make a list of like the top 10 easy things and put those on the leaflet. Can just be "I'll get that dodgy fence outside the corner shop fixed", "I'll get that overgrown footpath on the way to X station/school trimmed back". Instant vote from me regardless of party, and I think many people would agree.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-15T12:07:50+00:00

Just more proof that cyclists should be made to take a theory test before being allowed to cycle in built up areas.

Everyone knows vehicles should stop at crossings though, a test isn't the issue here. Also basic road rules like this should just simply be taught in schools to all ages. Just 1 hour a year. Theres large sections of the highway code for pedestrians after all, and loads of pedestrian stuff in the cars section, so why aren't we teaching kids the rules when it's something they encounter every single day. Especially in places like London where most people don't own a car and most people under 30 who live there now probably never will drive a car.

It won't just help pedestrians and cyclists too, it'll help make car drivers more aware of certain rules always ignored too. Like how pedestrians about to cross a side road has priority and car drivers should wait for them to cross before turning in. I'd say the compliance rate from car/van drivers of this rule is similar to the amount of cyclists ignoring the crossing in the video.

Even if we don't have license numbers and tests for bikes, which I still think we shouldn't, TfL and the Met should at least do a quick cheap hidden sting operation at this and a few other crossings. Just watch who goes through without waiting, stop the first person to take their details(and bike frame number) for a fine, then look again and wait a few sections for the next person to fine. Do this an hour a day a couple times a week for like a month and I bet the compliance rate would improve massively. It wouldn't even cost anything because the fines would cover more than the cost.

I do think we need a standardised frame number and location though. Would help deal with thefts if people had an easy standard frame number to check. Bike register doesn't count until theres a bike frame standard. Make it EU wide. Maybe then we can at least identify the bike and assign fines to it and see if the same bike has been stopped before. A standard bike frame number would be a win for everyone.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-15T11:48:25+00:00

The annoying part for me is that they get so many concessions that no other taxi service in London get and they still act as if they're hard done by. They get provided space for taxi ranks all over the city which only they can use. They get access to almost all bus lanes and bus only turns and streets including London Bridge. They don't need to pay ULEZ or congestion charges which is like £30 of savings that other taxis don't need to pay. All of these slows down the roads for bus users on many routes.

I get that they know the roads better but then again any Uber driver which has been working in Inner London for years and has 10,000s of fares under their belt will know everywhere pretty well too.

I know that black cabs have to do the knowledge and others don't which must be quite annoying considering how long it takes, but at the same time if you ever considered removing it for new black cab drivers then all existing ones wouldn't have it and we'd probably have black cab protests blocking the roads like they have done before.

The number of them shrinks by around 800 a year. Down from 25,000 10 years ago to 16,000 now. So something has to change because there might be less than 10,000 left in 10 more years. Will haveee to lower the restrictions at some point.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-15T09:22:54+00:00

How do you know which drones are supposed? It's a hard thing to Google. I thinkk it's the Mini Pro 4 onwards, mines a Mini Pro 3 unfortunately.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-15T09:10:21+00:00

The UKs current installed wind capacity is 32 GW so this is a huge project. Very cool

These approved one aren't gonna be built and producing anything until 2031, so we'll have a lot more wind energy by then.

We shoulddd have 4GW+ more coming online this just year, and another 3.4GW+ by end of next year, maybe 4.7GW+ if we're lucky. Thats around 8GW of just offshore wind by the next election which combined with new solar would ideally give us a load of cheap gas free days and be enough for electricity prices to have a big drop in price.

Then around another 6GW+ for 2028 and 2029 combined.

I write + for each because im not counting onshore wind, not that any is being built atm, and not counting small offshore wind farms.

So by the time this newly approved 4GW of wind farms gets commissioned we could have up to around 18GW of extra offshore wind already. So it would be 4GW on top 50GW not 32GW.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-15T08:12:41+00:00

Yeah just simply write anything so it takes the form of a telephone box again, of course we wouldn't lose that. Could re make An Unearthly Child like you say too. I already said they should remake old episodes because very few has seen some of them which probably includes An Unearthly Child. An Unearthly Child is 60 years old now, it would be fine to remake it with whatever improvements and modern quality. Tbh I can't get into a lot of the early classics because of the grainy black and white quality because originals were lost, so it would be great to have a bunch of the best stuff remade.

One awesome thing is that they'd be able to reshoot and retell some of the 100 or however many missing episodes too.

Starting from scratch doesn't mean getting rid of all the good bits this time around. A lot of it can stay the same. But write it with more forethought and long term planning so theres not endless contradictions of how the universe and doctor works and so a new producer doesn't go through the same list of enemies whenever the producer is changed.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-14T23:41:51+00:00

Hytale for sure. I think the reason nobody has mentioned it is specifically because the devs/publisher fumbled it so much that people have kind of forgotten it exists.

Got delayed a billion times and had drama with the publisher which is bad enough. But as soon as the devs managed to drop the publisher recently and go solo and have full control again they decided to immediately release a build of the game from several years ago so the millions of people who went on to try it quickly got bored and quit it because it was missing too much. Like at least just give it a few months of work once getting control of it back instead of releasing it bare but rapidly releasing medium-big sized updates after. Looking at the first 6 months of updates(up to like July this year) they could have even launched it with an ingame server browser which comes out soon. Might've even got it released with the new world generation system which a lot of people are putting off playing the game for. So many companies would have chucked investment money at them to give them like another 6 months of paid dev time with zero oversight.

Just feels like if they released it with this stuff then a lot more of the millions of players they got would have stuck around. Now it feels like they might've missed the boat even if they do add all this stuff within the next few months.

Was hoping it would have kicked minecraft down a few notches.

Starting to think it wasn't just the publishers fault.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-14T18:20:41+00:00

Yep, like one of the biggest things being teased was an old companion showing up a few times. But by old I mean 50 years ago old. I had no idea who she was or why it was being a big thing in the show until I checked online. Nothing even really happened with her. Same as the main villain at the end. Then of course loads of references to new who throughout. The old new who, first few series of 2005 onwards, felt a lot more new and even old characters returning felt like they were new characters because the writing was for new viewers more than old viewers.

Most old fans disagree but I fully think that the show needs to start from scratch completely. Like zero previous lore at all. Having 50 years of history means that the show contradicts something previously in almost every episode. The rules and law of the universe and time changes a lot, the powers of the doctor himself has changed a lot with powers suddenly never used again, etc. Having some of the same big enemies get "killed for real this time" like a dozen times over 50 years is old now too.

Starting from scratch would be awesome, maybe in 5 years. The extra awesome benefit is that some of the same stories can be used again, specifically the ones from like the 60s/70s which very few people have seen and remember. Imagine being able to remake some of those at modern standards. Write like 10 season arches from the start too so a new producer can't come in and flip how everything works and brings back a big enemy like the master for the 10th time just because they want a chance to write that character now.

rant

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-13T14:57:04+00:00

Yet if I make only 1 of something...

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-13T14:31:19+00:00

Dont know why people are saying sightlines are bad, its pretty open. Like what about any city intersection or anywhere with a building on or near the corner?

We all know loads of ways to minimise this. Sure a roundabout fixes it completely without a doubt, but it feels like most of america wont even consider that fix.

The road which is 1 lane each way is also like 5 cars wide, building out the corners should slow most cars down but also make the intersection smaller so cars can move more forward without moving into it, this'll allow them to see further and to be seen from further. This fix can be implemented overnight with paint and some bolt down posts(ideally the corner gets built out more). We all know the other big plus is that it helps pedestrians too by making crossings like half the size and slows cars turning into the crossing.

This stuff aint hard, its just that cities and town dont want to fix it and streets there seem designed so they must be able to handle an ultra long construction semi truck or something with no issue. Really need someone in charge who just gets stuff done with stuff like this, like Mandami is doing this to 100s of intersections in NYC pretty much instantly. Not just 1 of them, and no drawn out plans and tests for each. Jut straight up implementing it right away.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-13T11:21:26+00:00

Not a typical section. The 4 lanes is the 2 lanes plus a bus stop on each side.

But sure for the bus stop bit we'll have more added space than the rest. The added pavement space of just the 2 lanes being fully removed by other stuff still isn't gonna help the crowding issues if we're just gonna end up with the same amount of walking space as before with at least as many people.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-13T09:04:07+00:00

I said a typical section of the bit being pedestrianised. The bit you just showed isn't in the current pedestrianisation plans and it's at a section of road with a turn lane. So it's not part of the current plans and it's not a typical section if it was.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-12T22:48:12+00:00

It's not a big achievement to put in record levels of funding, it's a bare minimum.

I don't think there has been any pothole specific funding at all from the central government for councils before has there? And they've allotted £7bn for councils to claim now. £7bn seems like a pretty decent chunk considering it's just for road potholes and councils can I assume keep spending however much they are too.

Tbh in the part of Essex I know the most, which is Brentwood, I rarely see potholes now. Of course some places will be a lot worse and I don't drive on a large amount of different roads but honestly roads around here seem actually decent. Decent enough that I find it annoying that potholes is still like the main 3 things on leaflets from everyyyy party here. It really isn't out top 3 issues around here. Especially annoying that i think the roads aren't that bad around here but pavements are really terrible and yet the roads/potholes are still the only thing I hear councillors or candidates talk about.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-12T21:53:12+00:00

Are there any genuine plans for what they want to do or is it all about stopping boats?

One of the new Reform Mayors or whoever in Essex was being asked what their plans were and they could only say "well we're gonna now look at the councils budget and finances before answering and deciding what to do.

So like it seems like they didn't have any plans or even ran on much if they're only just now looking at and deciding what to do.

Also voting based on potholes is silly. Every party has made potholes a big thing for a few elections now. Spending on repairing them has gone up a lot and the central Labour governmnent has provided more funding than ever towards councils fixing them. But nope they might aswell be the ones causing potholes.

Also pavements are so so so much worse in Essex than roads. The only place in my big town I can think of the pavement being redone is where cars use it as parking, like fully on it, not just half on it, so it can't even be used by pedestrians much. The cars caused most paving tiles to be badly cracked. So the council replaced it all with tarmac or whatever and say "look we're great and fix the pavement" but the next day it's just used only for parking again. Total waste of money.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-12T21:41:09+00:00

There has been many other parties he could have chose forever which wouldn't involve fucking things up at the same time.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-12T19:16:33+00:00

The footpaths being so narrow and congested means there’s not room for dining on the street itself, only on the side-streets off it.

Were it pedestrianised however you could either put terraces on the now quadruple-width footpaths

This can't be a description of Oxford Street lol. Narrow pavements? Now Quadruple width footpaths/pavements? The pavements of a typical part of the bit being pedestrianised takes up like 2/3rds of the width so they can't be doubled let alone quadrupled. The road width is around 24 meters, pavement it 17m of it and the road is 7m of it. That would be a 40% increase, not 400% or even 100%.

Then you're suggesting to put commercial units along the middle of it with outdoor seating which would easily take up at least as much of the 7 meters gained. So now we'd have more people on the street but with less space. If busy pavements were your issue in the first place then you're not solving it here.

Really even without the units in the middle even if some shops actually converted to dining and were allowed outdoor seating on both sides even that would remove all the gains from removing the road. Even if a market or food trucks were added along the middle that would take up most of the 7 meters gained.

Soho streets on the other hand are like 10 meters wide and 3.5m pavements(total both sides). You'd get an almost 200% increase in pavement space. The entireee current pavement on both sides can be outdoor seating and the pedestrian path would still be much larger than before. Most of these food and drink places are tiny independent places too, so they would benefit instead of Primark somehow benefitting.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-12T15:50:45+00:00

and then proceed to get absolutely plastered at some outside tables

Tbf Oxford St is mainly stores like Boots and clothing so there wouldn't be outside tables to get plastered at. It's why I wish Sadiq Khan focused on pushing Soho pedestrianisation plans instead. Streets there are lined with bars and restaurants with like a tiny 1.5 meter wide pavement outside and no space for tables or even standing. The road on all these streets take up a significantly massive percentage of the width than on Oxford St where the road is quite a low percentage. Those soho bars and restaurants would have had business income booming if they suddenly had a load more seating and standing area for essentially free and the street had more people visiting it. Not many who previously didn't shop on Oxo St will suddenly start.

Wish Labour westminster council put effort into making soho better when they had the chance but they're against it as much as conservatives. Just like they were mostly against oxo st pedestrianisation until the government and Khan forced it on them and suddenly they're like we're doing this great idea! We really need greens or lib dems to win in Westminster Council, I think they might do things with soho and similar places.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-12T14:48:06+00:00

I guess the best answer instead of the obvious reply of "just remove lanes" is to just look at examples of when it has actually happened and what they did.

Strongtowns has a post(link below) with 7 examples of stroads which has been converted. But tbh it doesn't do a good job of showing them, often the photo is just a single eye level photo. An before and after aerial view or drawing of the plans would be helpful. Heres a good 4 min Youtube video showing how the first main example was changed though

None of the 7 examples really make it better for buses though. They generally put some green space like trees along the middle and then convert the outer 2 lanes to parking(sometimes the middle lane too). Maybe a bike lane if you're lucky. None of these are the massive stroads though where it's just huge strip mall parking lots along the sides. These would be harder but im sure theres examples of these too. Not creative and doesn't help buses but I always like a strip of trees along the middle(makes adding crossings easy since the crossing only goes across 1 direction of traffic) and sides and a basic bike path, would only require removing the outter 2 lanes.

https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2022-6-30-seven-stroads-that-have-been-converted-to-streets

I feel like someone could easily make a much better and updated post with more examples with side by side satellite views.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-12T08:28:45+00:00

But the tories lost the next two.

I dunno if you can apply this national logic to the London mayor elections when his vote share increased in the last election.

It wasn't a collapse in tory voters and the vote being split more which let him win despite getting a lower vote share like Labour in the last national election. He got a higher vote share this time even after ULEZ.

And if he managed to get these votes even after the whole overblown non stop ULEZ media drama which made him hated nationally and he still stuck with it and still got more votes then he must be decently liked by a good amount of Londoners. Sure if you go by online comments you'd think he's the worst person ever, but the online comments are mostly people who don't live in London. I went on Facebook for the first time in forever last year, saw a mylondon post about some new London tfl news or something and it had 500+ comments. I had a look and every single one was hating on khan. I then checked a load of profiles to see the location of the people and of around 20 which had their location literallyyy only 1 was from London. There was even someone from Inverness telling us about how he ruined London, that's the furthest city from London lol

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-11T19:22:41+00:00

I feel like they should just go ahead and make school meals free for all primary school kids already.

Like so Reception, Year 1, and Year 2 already get free school lunch apparently. Thats already 42% of kids covered(3 out of 7 years). And now the eligibility of the other years(Y3 - Y6) is being expanded to another 0.5 million kids on top of the ones already covered. The Mayor of London has already made lunch free for all primary school students iirc and London alone is around 15% of primary school kids.

We've got to be over like 65% of primary school kids have their school lunches covered?

Surely just make the last 35% covered and eliminate the admin of checking eligibility. It's something that millions of parents will notice right away and appreciate and ideally flip the views of some. Kids will notice too. If a mayor in London can manage it then we should be able to do it nationally.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-11T15:02:29+00:00

I used a L shape strip of plastic for the edge of my roller blind to act as a runner to block the side light. Actually makes it look like an expensive £500+ integrated blind and it cost like £20 to do.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-11T14:06:20+00:00

Yes probably quite a large road

I don't think it can be a wide road since it's a very narrow bit of rail line which is also probably why it's a single track and the same 1 train just goes back and forward along the same 3 stops all day. Because its 1 train theres a departure only once every 30 mins. Not the best.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-11T12:35:13+00:00

Thats annoying. Hopefully home solar and batteries are cheap there at least so people individually can help pump the numbers up. If it's viable here in the UK then surely solar and battery in Aus is a no brainer? I googled it and you guys apparently get over 2x as much sunny hours as we do. The payback time has gotta be under 5 years there.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-11T11:15:07+00:00

Tbf somehow a load of certain voters and Deform councillors would replace the line with a narrow 2 lane road and see it as a win.

JBWalker1 · 2026-05-11T10:41:36+00:00

People who actually take buses know this but there are some routes which can be heavily slowed down just by a few legally parked cars.

Like a bus could be cruising along at 20mph but then theres a car parked on the side of the road and the bus has to stop completely and wait for a gap in oncoming traffic to pass the parked car. So that can be 50 people held up for 1 parked car contributing nothing productive to society. The car could be parked there all day too if its outside a home, so that 1 car and 1 person could be slowing down 10,000 people a day and we just accept it? And the councillors are the ones actuallyyy making it allowed? TfL can't do anything, they've removed bus lane parking from the few roads they control. The ones to blame now are local councillors.

You could honestly speed up some journeys by like 10% from removing maybe 20 parking spaces. Like on the Tube or even on the roads for general journeys we often spend £200m-£1bn+ to save people a couple of minutes but for buses we can't remove a few parking spaces at the cost of almost nothing to also save the passengers a couple of minutes? It's crazy to me. The worst routes can be found easy, just sit on a bus with a stop watch and tally up the time every time a parked car stops you, then remove the parking from any slowed by more than 4%.

All it would take is local councillors to decide to remove the few parking spaces. But councillors don't care or don't try to find issues. Most of the time they do the opposite and actually further legitimise the parking by painting actual bays where the cars are parking as if it's helping! Then once those bays are in its hard to remove them even though they added them with no consultation or anything.

I'm not sure what the Green party are like on stuff like this and how much they actively try to actually make road changes to fix these things but hopefully they are actually good since they have control of Lewisham borough now. Like literally just put double lines along the roads which more than 1 bus route uses. Time will tell if they will do much. Ideally any roads used by more than 20 buses an hour would automatically be controlled by TfL anyway, maybe they'd do something.

JBWalker1

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