It’s emerged that a ‘rainbow junction’ in support of the LGBT community cost taxpayers almost £50,000.
The four crossings, painted in the coloured stripes of the Progressive Pride flag was rolled out in Chiswick High Road in February by the Labour-run Hounslow council.
According to a newspaper outlet, disability campaigners were left furious when it was revealed to be the most expensive rainbow crossing in Britain, at the cost of £48,174.
The National Federation of the Blind of the UK said ‘inclusion must mean inclusion for all, including blind people’ and instead the money could instead have been spent on safety and accessibility for the visually impaired.
Meanwhile, Tory peer Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne suggested the crossing would inevitably cause migraines and trigger epilepsy.
The scheme was developed alongside the West London Queer Project, which aims to ‘connect, support and give voice to’ the LGBT community in the area.
The newspaper outlet found that over the course of a year, the crossing itself cost more than £34,000, while the town hall also splurged £9,000 on road markings and resurfacing, £1,900 on traffic management and £4,500 on road safety audits.
By comparison, £46,000 was the combined cost of developing rainbow crosses on hospital grounds by 20 NHS trusts in 2019.
Hounslow, which supports Sadiq Khan’s Ulez expansion and recently increased council tax by the maximum amount of 4.99 per cent rejected the suggestion that it was a poor allocation of resources.
Council leader Shantanu Rajawat told the paper that important day-to-day services were not affected by new community endeavours like this.
He said that due to their prudent financial management over many years, Hounslow was in a relatively strong position among local authorities and their balanced budget would ensure they would continue to deliver the quality of services and support residents expect and deserve.
It comes after a newspaper outlet announced last year that councils have spent more than £200,000 on woke pedestrian crossings.
MPs voiced their outrage at how taxpayer’s money has been wasted on the absurd pet projects while frontline services including bin collections have been cut.
The £200,000 outlay includes £43,000 splashed out by Kensington and Chelsea Council on three ‘creative crossings’, including a Japan-themed one, while Richmond Council in South West London spent £4,400 on a crossing featuring poppies.
Freedom of Information data shows that in total, 21 local authorities spent £205,084 on what are described as ‘pointless paint jobs’.
It all boils down to councils squandering taxpayers’ money just like the government does.
This is a waste of money, but then Labour are good at wasting money, but then we mustn’t forget that the Conservatives are excellent at tunnelling money to millionaires. It’s official, the world’s gone mad!
How many schoolchildren could have benefited from school meals? How many pensioners could have benefited from having money for food or heating? How many families could have benefited from additional food and garments for their children?
Of course, other funding has been affected and this was money redirected for unnecessary ego-boosting assignments and are no doubt probably not legal under road traffic management laws.
It’s now time for Council Tax rebellion because you’re not getting what you pay for, and it’s certainly not value for money.
These lines aren’t identified in the Highway Code, so how can this be legal? And worse still, not recognised by drivers, wait for the casualties to happen!
That amount of money would have filled a ton of potholes on the roads, but amazingly, the person that authorised this work likely believed they were doing a fabulous job, and in order to authorise this amount of expenditure they must be getting well-paid, what a waste!
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 