DOI fails again

[CallMeCurious]

13 hours ago, Ringy Rose said:

The electric bus has been here for a couple of weeks. It’s just a Citaro, but an electric one. Hardly worth a meltdown.

Waiting for the first photo of it conked out somewhere unless it's a hybrid.

[hissingsid]

Hardly worth a meltdown if it did not cost fortunes and was being considered by a department who love to buy new busses at any cost, did not take hours to charge with very expensive electricity……….it really is worth a meltdown considering this departments history of purchasing new toys.

[CallMeCurious]

5 hours ago, asitis said:

We are going to have to return to pragmatic solutions, make sure the right people are in the right posts who can embrace this, and live happily without continuing to develop their empires to be paid for by a dwindling taxation base.

The island has huge problems and sadly the majority of them are self inflicted !

Turkey's won't for Christmas and as has been evidenced by 500 extra CS jobs in recent years (despite Manx Care and other sectors being fobbed off to the private sector (e.g. road works, signage for roadworks etc.)) it'll take a major crisis such as another big cut in the share of VAT, another pandemic or financial collapse to change anything.

Government mentality is always to spend what they are given so they keep the budget they have. I don't believe there is a single department that has ever had a lasting cut in its budget in the last 20 years. So you will get £2m (£3m by the time it’s done) footbridges on a footpath, pristine rural B roads* and cycle lanes to nowhere while A roads are reminiscent of Baghdad and Beirut  . 

*Probably in preperation for some e-rally or a stage of the Tour de France

 

 

[Non-Believer]

53 minutes ago, CallMeCurious said:

Government mentality is always to spend what they are given so they keep the budget they have. I don't believe there is a single department that has ever had a lasting cut in its budget in the last 20 years. So you will get £2m (£3m by the time it’s done) footbridges on a footpath, pristine rural B roads* and cycle lanes to nowhere while A roads are reminiscent of Baghdad and Beirut

Just for the benefit of short-memoried voters, this was Alf's edict as Treasury Minister just over two years ago.

I would ask anybody to make comment on whether or not they think anything was implemented in respect of this, if it was, was any of it actually observed and what have been the tangible results?

[2112]

1 hour ago, hissingsid said:

Hardly worth a meltdown if it did not cost fortunes and was being considered by a department who love to buy new busses at any cost, did not take hours to charge with very expensive electricity……….it really is worth a meltdown considering this departments history of purchasing new toys.

It’s not worth a meltdown but I’m sure it’s worth a good photo opportunity with the DOIs MHK/MLC department members and Minister Thomas all pictured on the new bus. It will be reminiscent of the first direct flight from the IOM to Malaga, with the DOIs use of a good photo opportunity to grandstand. Incidentally have our esteemed politicos been chauffeured on the new bus yet, ready for them to give their expert opinions.

[The Bastard]

1 hour ago, CallMeCurious said:

So you will get £2m (£3m by the time it’s done) footbridges on a footpath, pristine rural B roads* and cycle lanes to nowhere while A roads are reminiscent of Baghdad and Beirut  . 

There's always someone with some sort of depressive illness who posts something like "The Isle of Man has the worst roads in the world" on these threads because there are a few potholes (that they didn't bother to report), whilst never having left the IOM has left them blissfully ignorant of what really bad roads look like.

It's a terrible analogy because Baghdad and Beirut aren't really that bad - modern cities with a lot spent on infrastructure. Every city (Beirut or Douglas) has bad areas and incompetent governance, but as a shortcut, try zooming in on Beirut on Google Maps. You'll see a thriving city of shops, art galleries, stores and universities, something that you could only dream of over here.  

Looking at the state of the roads over here, you should really compare with the UK - in Bristol a month ago, nearly 80% of roads were in need of repair. We're not even close to that state, and after a winter of freezing temperatures, ice and snow, it would be an effing miracle if the roads didn't need some form of repair.

I'm sure a lot of the whingeing happens over here because people have nothing else to worry them - they're not being stabbed or robbed in the street, it's safe to walk after dark, you can be reasonably sure that your car will be where you left it (apart from at the airport) and you're not lying awake wondering if that noise downstairs was the dog or a burglar with a machete. 

[CallMeCurious]

14 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

Just for the benefit of short-memoried voters, this was Alf's edict as Treasury Minister just over two years ago.

I would ask anybody to make comment on whether or not they think anything was implemented in respect of this, if it was, was any of it actually observed and what have been the tangible results?

 

Looks like it was taken out to the farm and is now buried somewhere in the south pasture along with many other manifesto promises. Seems the Beaman review suggested an alternative which has also not manifested itself yet

https://gef.im/2021/12/22/capital-projects-board-could-be-over-before-it-began/
 

Guess it's business as usual, probabaly until the current head of the PMU moves on. After all the new head of the DoI was acting up in the role for over 12 months after Nick Black left and no progress on it has been seen.

Meanwhile,

Meanwhile, a number of capital schemes have been already been approved within the 2023 Budget.

Indeed, the capital programme commits more then £230m over the next five years in approved Central Government schemes.

These include:

• £495,000 to purchase two new double mobile classroom units to provide further short-term accommodation at Castle Rushen High School and replace the mobile unit at Willaston Primary School that is at the end of its useful life
• £605,000 for catchment management works targeted at reducing the levels of heavy metals entering the River Neb through management at source and reducing the level of sediment entering the river
• £780,000 to support the replacement of radiology equipment at Noble's Hospital
• £2.3m in further funding for the Sexual Assault Referral Centre (there is now an increased cost due to changes in specification as a result of updated compliance requirements around standards of forensic evidence)
• £3.36m in additional funding for the King Edward VIII pier in Douglas (on top of the amount approved during the 2022/23 budget setting process, due to reflect increased construction costs)
• £420,000 for the replacement of equipment for the Police and the Fire and Rescue Service
• £370,000 for Ambulance fleet replacement

So at minimum that's £23m a year and doesn't appear to include anyhting for the windymillers and suncatchers nor a cruise ship terminal, felt museum or completion of the Horse Team MER commuter track. 

[Ativa]

30 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

Just for the benefit of short-memoried voters, this was Alf's edict as Treasury Minister just over two years ago.

I would ask anybody to make comment on whether or not they think anything was implemented in respect of this, if it was, was any of it actually observed and what have been the tangible results?

That has already been implemented.

I don’t work in gov so don’t know the ins and outs, but if you speak to people who do then the whole process around sourcing funding for projects has changed.

[CallMeCurious]

8 minutes ago, The Bastard said:

There's always someone with some sort of depressive illness who posts something like "The Isle of Man has the worst roads in the world" on these threads because there are a few potholes (that they didn't bother to report), whilst never having left the IOM has left them blissfully ignorant of what really bad roads look like.

It's a terrible analogy because Baghdad and Beirut aren't really that bad - modern cities with a lot spent on infrastructure. Every city (Beirut or Douglas) has bad areas and incompetent governance, but as a shortcut, try zooming in on Beirut on Google Maps. You'll see a thriving city of shops, art galleries, stores and universities, something that you could only dream of over here.  

Looking at the state of the roads over here, you should really compare with the UK - in Bristol a month ago, nearly 80% of roads were in need of repair. We're not even close to that state, and after a winter of freezing temperatures, ice and snow, it would be an effing miracle if the roads didn't need some form of repair.

I'm sure a lot of the whingeing happens over here because people have nothing else to worry them - they're not being stabbed or robbed in the street, it's safe to walk after dark, you can be reasonably sure that your car will be where you left it (apart from at the airport) and you're not lying awake wondering if that noise downstairs was the dog or a burglar with a machete. 

Thanks for the diagnosis doc, now I guess I'll join the waiting list for a referal.

[Capt_Mainwaring]

21 minutes ago, The Bastard said:

There's always someone with some sort of depressive illness who posts something like "The Isle of Man has the worst roads in the world" on these threads because there are a few potholes (that they didn't bother to report), whilst never having left the IOM has left them blissfully ignorant of what really bad roads look like.

It's a terrible analogy because Baghdad and Beirut aren't really that bad - modern cities with a lot spent on infrastructure. Every city (Beirut or Douglas) has bad areas and incompetent governance, but as a shortcut, try zooming in on Beirut on Google Maps. You'll see a thriving city of shops, art galleries, stores and universities, something that you could only dream of over here.  

Looking at the state of the roads over here, you should really compare with the UK - in Bristol a month ago, nearly 80% of roads were in need of repair. We're not even close to that state, and after a winter of freezing temperatures, ice and snow, it would be an effing miracle if the roads didn't need some form of repair.

I'm sure a lot of the whingeing happens over here because people have nothing else to worry them - they're not being stabbed or robbed in the street, it's safe to walk after dark, you can be reasonably sure that your car will be where you left it (apart from at the airport) and you're not lying awake wondering if that noise downstairs was the dog or a burglar with a machete. 

Very sensible post. As you say I suspect a lot of the moaners have not been across for a while - our roads are in a much better state of repair here. Scotland in particular is awful - Glasgow being a hot spot for crumbling surfaces and deep potholes.

[snowman]

Just because somewhere else is worse doesn't make the current situation acceptable 

[Capt_Mainwaring]

I didn't say it was - just needs a bit of perspective.

[Happier diner]

2 hours ago, CallMeCurious said:

A roads are reminiscent of Baghdad and Beirut  . 

No they are not. 

[offshoremanxman]

1 minute ago, Happier diner said:

No they are not. 

Agree the prom is more like an Angolan scheme where all the government infra money was stolen before they even laid the first patch so it had to be completed at 1/10 th of its original contract value. 

[Two-lane]

I have another plan....

The health service and the education service are given as much money as is required to keep people happy.

Whenever the DoI says they want money to trial an electric bus or lay some pink concrete, they are asked "Which bit of the health service are you going to cut?".

The MHKs want free parking? "Which bit of the health service are you going to cut?".