Cast your minds back to the Highways England Lorry Park Exhibitions and visualise Paul Harwood standing between the pink blobs on barely discernible maps telling us that one big lorry park is the only way forward, and that multiple lorry parks are out of the question because 'smart' signage simply would not work. Then cast your minds back to Westenhanger Castle where our Member of Parliament, Damian Collins said the same thing when questioned on the very same subject by local residents.
As Mr. Harwood and Mr. Collins were not forthcoming on any statistics to back up their claims, we can only deduce that great untruths were being told.
Capita Group is a FTSE 100 company operating in the support sector and this is what they are saying:
Since 2005 our transport technology team has worked on Highways England's Traffic Information System (HATRIS) which is used to monitor and report on vehicle journey times on the motorway and trunk road network. The system enables Highways England and the Department for Transport to identify trends and to design new schemes based on solid evidence of traffic flows. Highways England has also appointed us to provide a new asset management system and associated consultancy services for its road maintenance teams.
We're also involved in developing and managing other important high tech schemes, including:
· active traffic management
· managed motorway systems
· road user charging and tolling systems
· tunnel control and monitoring
· real time passenger information
· technology enforcement systems
· traffic monitoring and control systems.
Was Mr Harwood or Mr. Collins not aware of HATRIS ? Well I suppose we could forgive Mr. Collins for not knowing about HATRIS because he is only our MP, but Mr. Harwood should be 'up to speed' with all developments, or has he had a (very convenient) mental block for the past 11 years.
S&DRA
