Only Obeying Orders

‘BRITISH workmen are the best in the world – give them an instruction and they will follow it to the letter.

Warning: creases ahead

Unfortunately, give them a map with a bit of a crease in it and the results can be disastrous.

That at least is the explanation from Hampshire County Council for the “wibbly wobbly” markings along the road through East Boldre, as reported in yesterday’s Anorak.

Villagers were told that the lines beside the road were deliberately wavy to try to persuade cars the road was narrower than it is and so slow down.

But now the council insists that it was all a simple mistake.

“What we really wanted was simple straight parallel lines, one down each side of the road 480cm apart,” council leader Ken Thornber told the Express.

“Unfortunately, there was a problem with the drawings, which were badly folded and creases made some of the measurements look like 430 and 420cm instead.

“The painter followed the instructions which resulted in a straight line down one side of the road and a wavy one down the other.

“There was no plot to confuse motorists. It was a simple human error.”

Nevertheless, we congratulate contractors Raynesway Construction Southern for following the instructions so exactly.

It’ll be a sad day when British workmen are allowed to use their own common sense…’

Posted: 2nd, July 2004 | In: Tabloids Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink