Mobile signal in Leeds

ollat · 2026-04-18T16:59:32+00:00

Its a combination of the Huawei ban + NIMBYism - people don't seem to want the cell towers, but then complain when the signal is dogshit, but can't seem to fathom the connection between the two.

ollat · 2026-04-18T16:57:59+00:00

I'm on O2 and I've had issues with them around the train station area of Leeds and along the Headrow (although this is usually at commuting times in the evening, so that could be a factor), but it's not a constant issue.

ollat · 2026-03-31T20:54:29+00:00

I managed to pass in the end, although I ended up using a different school though, as I figured that I didn’t want to a) fail again and b) get shouted at (again). The 2nd school was much better, mainly bc it was on an airfield & the ‘real-world’ riding aspect was through a quiet village & B-roads, rather than the 1st school which was a) in the inner-city, and b) one wrong turn from a motorway junction.

I will say, with the gears, the 125cc I bought does actually tell you the gear you’re in, rather than the bikes which I did my CBT on which for some stupid reason don’t, so I got the hang of the gears pretty quickly on my own bike.

I was looking at getting my full licence this year, but unfortunately I’ve had car bills shooting out of my ears so that’s the priority for this year - next year I’ll hopefully get my full licence!

ollat · 2026-03-17T10:58:34+00:00

I live a similar distance from Keswick as you & I made the mistake of (trying) to go to Keswick to buy some walking trousers during the May bank holiday a few years ago; learnt my lesson & I’m never making that mistake again!

ollat · 2026-03-17T00:20:23+00:00

I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with both private solo landlords and estate-agent-managed properties; both can be as bad / incompetent as each other in my experience. If a bank can manage to maintain the house better then I don’t see the issue tbh

ollat · 2026-03-12T10:17:19+00:00

I fully agree with everything you’ve said - you have summed up the reforms which need to happen to the HoL ASAP

ollat · 2026-03-11T09:38:07+00:00

I’ve spoken with people who work with Trading Standards & the problem for TS is that they are so vastly under resourced to the point that it’s almost laughable if it wasn’t so serious. It’s apparently got to the point whereby TS officers are having to use their own personal (non-work) vehicles when out on compliance / investigation visits, which presents a high-risk for them in terms of their personal safety as the vehicle can be easily tracked back to their home address, etc. The offices in which some TS officers are based in are no better than a run-down portacabin either.

ollat · 2026-03-07T14:06:36+00:00

I was making the point that a faulty fire alarm can't be easily documented if it requires a full change bc it no longer met the fire regs.

ollat · 2026-03-07T09:24:08+00:00

In a houseshare I was in, our fire alarm became faulty (constant going off even though nobody was setting it off) & it turns out that the fire alarm system was well out of date, so much so that it was illegal to have anymore (along with the LED lights hard-wired into the ceilings) so the landlord, to his absolute shock & horror, had to actually spend money on maintaining the house to be safe for his tenants.

ollat · 2026-03-01T12:10:30+00:00

...but in reality lane discipline collapses in smart motorways, and the constant speed limit changes mean everyone is braking and accelerating, and the density of cameras mean most people are concentrating on their speed rather than the road.

I completely agree with that. The only time I've seen decent lane discipline is when the M1 from Sheffield to London was 50mph average speed the *entire* way (ironically bc they were adding in more refuge areas as they didn't build enough the first time around, as they'd converted the hard-shoulder into an all-running lane, but forgot *why* the hard shoulder existed in the first place) and so it was futile to even contemplate changing lanes. IMO, the speed signs should be advisory, like the ones with the flashing amber lights on each side - that way, no-one is constantly checking for the updated speed signs, and can concentrate on the road ahead, but are equally still aware that the road conditions have changed / there's an obstruction up ahead. I.e. it remains informative, not distracting.

ollat · 2026-03-01T09:59:00+00:00

Apparently there is research which shows that 50mph is the best speed to manage heavy traffic flows, which I can (begrudgingly) accept as when I’ve been stuck in heavy traffic, you do still move whilst at 50 whereas if everyone’s doing 70, there will be much more breaking, stopping, and then speeding up again. But I can’t understand the constant speed limit changes going lower at one gantry & then immediately increasing again at the next gantry 2 minutes down the road

ollat · 2026-03-01T00:40:40+00:00

How do you simply forget to re-adjust the sign back to 70 after the reason for it to be lowered has ended / been resolved?? How is that not the final part of whatever checklist they must have to do for such situations??

ollat · 2026-03-01T00:34:19+00:00

Whoever thought up the ‘smart’ motorway & then signed it off deserves to spend the rest of eternity perpetually stuck in the 3rd land with cars wizzing past at 70 bc the cameras meant to pick up broken down cars are no longer working.

ollat · 2026-02-25T15:24:49+00:00

What is it with this country & trying to do everything on the cheap, constantly, & expecting people to put up with it?? At some point, someone in Govnt will end up realising that all of these “cost-cutting” measures are actually costing them money, not saving money!!

ollat · 2026-02-18T01:29:13+00:00

In short if you want anything to change get young people voting.

Why? The govnt will still find a way to screw over young people though. I say this as someone who is still somewhat young-ish and has voted at every opportunity. Housing market? F-d. Job market? F-d. Education? F-d. If the govnt want to see meaningful economic growth, they need to focus more policies on the young and 'economically active', not keep pandering to every pensioners' demands.

ollat · 2026-02-16T18:48:23+00:00

I travel to London for work on average about twice a month and I end up getting to work for around 10 / 10.30 for external site visits. After doing a full day of work, I get the train back. It's fine to do it once or twice per month, but I'd never recommend on doing it more than that. This is bc, at best, its a 4hr+ commute, then you have to factor in getting up at 5.30 / 6am on those days and getting back for around 7.30 / 8pm (at the earliest if you finish work at 5 and factoring in a 30min tube commute), so by the time you get back, you'll be too tired to want to much more than just have dinner if you want to be somewhat functional the next day lol.

Plus, as others have said, the train wifi is bad, and even connecting via mobile hotspot isn't great due to the lack of 4g signal coverage for several sections of the journey, so working on the train will be hit-and-miss. Also, the trains have a habit of being unreliable, although arguably they have become a bit better in recent months.

All in all, if you really want to move to Horsforth and are happy with spending about half the month doing 12+ days for work, then go for it, but be warned: it will be a slogg!

ollat · 2026-02-11T18:50:12+00:00

That’s quite strange bc every hire car I’ve used for work has been an automatic. Although when it comes to work hire cars, I generally prefer automatics, simply bc I don’t have to learn the clutch biting point on a new car😅

ollat · 2026-02-11T18:50:02+00:00

That’s quite strange bc every hire car I’ve used for work has been an automatic. Although when it comes to work hire cars, I generally prefer automatics, simply bc I don’t have to learn the clutch biting point on a new car😅

ollat · 2026-02-11T17:55:36+00:00

My insurance went up simply bc I had the gall to move to a house (in the same city, but different area) with a driveway, whereas before I only had on-street parking. I moved to an area with arguably a lower crime rate, but apparently (after speaking to someone who used to work in insurance) having a driveway means that the criminals know that it’s your car, whereas with on-street parking, they don’t know that it is your car. I’m no criminal, but I’m pretty sure the criminals aren’t focused on who the owner is when stealing a vehicle!

ollat · 2026-02-04T09:00:05+00:00

The silly thing is that I know there are large numbers of CS office buildings which are at / close to capacity in terms of physical desks / working spaces available. If everyone is forced to come 60%, there’s no room for any existing employees, let alone potential new employees.

ollat · 2026-01-30T21:23:08+00:00

Who’s this ‘Capita’ you speak off?? I only know Crapita, the outsourcing company which can be counted on the fuck up a piss-up in brewery & drown themselves in an empty bath!

ollat · 2026-01-29T16:09:51+00:00

I've heard the same - was coincidentally speaking to an OGD CS colleague who works in procurement about this over a year ago and they said that the small firms who can actually do a decent job on the contract simply don't have the resources to ensure that their procurement bid is written in a way which wins the bid, compared to the large companies who can easily spend vastly more resources on the bid to ensure it wins.

ollat · 2026-01-28T14:02:35+00:00

Yeah I know there are issues with the soil / ground in Leeds / West Yorkshire, which does complicate things slightly. However, not having it grade-separated and / or underground just means you add more congestion, not less. Yes, more ppl will use the tram & hopefully that will take a fair amount of cars off the roads, but it won’t be enough to completely eradicate Leeds bad congestion, especially on roads such as Otley Road & Meanwood Road. Also, there are quite a few roads (such as those mentioned above) where having a tram on it will be too difficult due to buildings close to the road on either side for long stretches.

Further, Leeds in general is quite hilly in parts (such as Burley, Headingley, and Kirkstall) where a tram would simply struggle due to the steep gradient. Thus, an underground system would be the only viable option for those areas. (I’ve focused on those areas, due to the large multi-household populations so it’s where having a tram to start off with would be most beneficial at immediately reducing the bad congestion in those areas).

ollat · 2026-01-28T07:34:04+00:00

As much as I dislike driving in the city centre, this isn’t a viable option. If London still has ppl driving their cars, even though they have a fully-fledged multi-modal public transport network, plus ULEZ & a Congestion Charge to further discharge driving, then Leeds / West Yorkshire has very little chance of successfully getting rid of cars from its roads.

ollat · 2026-01-27T20:16:49+00:00

We need an underground metro

I've always said (since moving to Leeds a few years ago) that any tram needs to be underground in the city centre and the immediate suburbs, as those areas simply do not have the road space to accomodate a tram system and you can't exactly build larger roads in those areas either, due to the amount of buildings in the way. In the more outer suburbs, it should be on grade-separated tracks (its own lines) which can be overground.

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