The Long Long Grass of Home
“Alas, this will kill that”
A melancholy phrase uttered by Claude Frollo in Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris, referring to the fatal impact the printing press would have on gothic architecture. I sense we feel this pain today, inflicted through the consequences of fast-paced technological change, exemplified by the dawn of the internet and what increasingly feels like the impending dusk set upon us by artificial intelligence. Yet some of the murders committed by technological advance have been left to go cold. We seldom dwell on the impact that private car ownership has had on our society, a growing addiction we freely choose to ignore.
How quaint, how philosophical an opening paragraph and yet as guilty of making no difference as most of the rhetoric we hear now from populists on both sides of the political debate. Meanwhile, as we toss verbiage at each other, we wait patiently for the economy to right itself so that meaningful action can finally take place. Sadly, it is unlikely to do so. The printing press, after all, could not physically build churches, no matter how hard it tried.
Historically it is shown that action must precede recovery, think Roosevelt’s New Deal post 1929 crash or the Attlee Government following the Second World War. No number of words would have lifted stones following those economic shocks. The problem we face is that our shocks are rapidly falling behind us yet no meaningful program of public works has transpired, though it must be said there are murmurings nationally.
Locally we have a lot to be excited about because the party in administration is aptly entitled ‘Reform’ - which is exactly what should be on the agenda. I pray that it is and there are some opportunities coming up for the administration to live up to its name - everyone ready yourselves for the budget which is set to go out for consultation in December. Sharpen your fine-tooth combs.
The LCWIP (Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan) too, is due to go before Cabinet in March 2026 where I have no doubt it will be afforded the level of scrutiny it deserves. I am also certain it will not be tossed into the long grass like its ill-fated predecessor but that the current administration will see it as an important opportunity to implement infrastructure that could assist people toward avoiding ever-growing insurance premiums and fuel costs.
Note that the 2022 peak in fuel prices can be used as a marker point to suggest fuel prices are ‘coming down’, they are not. Fuel prices will only ever rise in the long term. For those who may blame this on government duties, look at the long-term Crude oil price. If you are a patriot who also believes in a future for oil extraction, you should be doing whatever you can do to reduce fuel consumption at home...LCWIP.
The electric vehicle will not solve the problem either as any government that notices the decline in tax receipts from fuel duty will hurriedly implement a pay per mile tax, necessary to support the hungry infrastructure that private car ownership (of any flavour) requires. Fuel duty, by the way, has been frozen for a decade and was even given a not so temporary cut in 2022. Meanwhile there is a hole in the Government's budget which they have unsuccessfully attempted to fill through cuts to welfare and will now fill with rises in general taxation, side-lining the fact we have been living beyond our means in terms of personal transport for 14 years (at least) – are you reading Mike Reader, Lucy Rigby?
I digress; I know that the Reform Council will look at the LCWIP with the future in mind where household and Council expenditure could be deviated from the bottomless pits of car ownership and perpetual road maintenance. I know they will offer it this respect because they are shrewd, forward- thinking economists with their hands on the auditor’s razor.
If there be one meaningful cut from this razor, let it be loosed on the metaphorical long grass.
CA-WN Readers – The LCWIP goes before Cabinet in 2026 – keep an eye on the Forward plans here