Bollards trouble

YOU have to laugh sometimes. One of the new cost cutting exercises is to be the installation of a new type of island illuminated bollard. I can only hazard a guess who came up with this one.

So traditional bollards are to be replaced by new eco-friendly cost-saving, high tech all singing all dancing bollards.

The new bollards – so they say – are going to be cheaper to run as they are solar powered. They also have a special coating which reduces the build-up of road dirt from passing traffic.

A council spokesman said: “The bollards are an environmentally-friendly and cost-saving alternative to lit bollards.

“They are resilient and often don’t need to be replaced after low speed impacts.” The new style bollard shown in the Examiner did not look all that clean to me. And as far as surviving a low speed impact it looked as though a gust of wind would knock it over – in fact the bollard angle looked unstable.

Clr David Sheard, Kirklees Cabinet member for Highways and Streetscene, said: “Traditional bollards have a number of drawbacks which include the cost of keeping them lit and the need for a power source.”

As an added thought could we install a small wind turbine on the top which could be propelled as traffic drove by. Well, maybe that would not work as the speed of local traffic is so slow that it would be extremely difficult to generate enough wind to turn the blades.

Why not firstly question whether or not we need the great number of traffic islands we have around the area?

I have just driven down Westbourne Road where we have a full scale test of the new type of bollard. Only a handful are lit and a mere handful are clean.

The only reason you can see the unlit bollards is because of the reflective nature of the bollard. So all we need is some sticky back reflective plastic and place this on to the old style of bollard.

R J Bray

Shelley