How far would you go to ensure there was a bit less traffic on the road in the morning?
Leicestershire CC's Cllr Lynton Yates - Ukip’s general election candidate for Charnwood, Leicestershire - has come up with a novel way of reducing congestion, one that appears too radical even for his own party.
In a campaign leaflet photographed by residents, Mr Yates points out that millions of cars could be removed from the roads ‘if benefit claimants were not driving’.
‘Why do they have the privilege to spend the tax payers' [emphasis not added] hard earned money on a car when those in work are struggling to keep their own car on the road? These people should really catch a bus!’
It goes on to add: ‘As much as I applaud cycling as a form of exercise and past-time [sic] the already congested roads cannot cope with both bus lanes AND cyclists. Cycles should go back to the pavements yet give priority to pedestrians.’
Sadly, Mr Yates somewhat gilds the satirist’s lily by adding at the end: ‘Yet again we're proposing common sense policies and common sense solutions.’
Even more sadly, for Mr Yates, a Ukip spokesperson told newspapers: ‘These are not UKIP policies and they will not form part of the UKIP manifesto.’
However, before Ukip’s enemies in the metropolitan elite scoff too loudly, Transport Network would remind everyone that the leader of the nation’s capital, Boris Johnson, had until recently planned a giant trampoline ‘Bounceway’ for the Southbank.
The scheme, which was dropped this week just two months after first being mooted, would have created ‘the world's longest urban trampoline’ as a means to hasten inner-city movement and was included in Transport for London’s £1.8m Future Streets Incubator plan.
In an effort not to be an 'I told you so' killjoy, London Assembly Labour Group’s transport spokesperson Val Shawcross AM said the scheme was obviously intended to be ‘good fun’ but added that ‘it was never an appropriate use of hundreds of thousands of pounds in transport funding’.
One imagines Boris must be hoping for some grand project as a send off from City Hall – it now appears the world’s most dangerous pavement won’t be it.
Update: Mr Yates has since been suspended from being a Ukip candidate.