John Marwood
I ♥ cryptic crosswords
Apparently, Staffs County Council has 21,500 employees, or thereabouts. Stafford Borough Council has only 400 or so. The Hospital employs c.3000, though if it goes down to 2999 the whole place goes into meltdown, or something.
Stafford is a good town to cycle in - this year marks my tenth of regularly doing so - easily as good as Oxford (Oh, Oxford... etc), a previous haunt of mine. The difference between Oxford and Stafford?
Culture. Of all sorts...
But back to cycling - a culture of cycling in Oxford has led to a continued culture of cycling in Oxford which will lead to an etc etc. More importantly, this means that there is an increased awareness of all road users that there are all sorts of road users on the road (many of the pedestrians are a bit 'lost in thought' sort of thing - you tend to keep more of an eye out for them) so there is much more 'us', far less 'them 'n' us' going on. The difference in 'terrain' between the two is negligible - Radford Bank vs Headington Hill... FIGHT! - there is no reason why an equally equitable co-existence cannot be established here.
I've noticed a huge increase in cycle use in the last ten years - when i first started my commute i would genuinely be surprised to see one, let alone two, other cyclists on the road - and am a big believer in the whole 'critical mass' idea. It is not, of course, the answer to all our transport woes but it beats the shit out of sitting in a queue of traffic for half an hour if you ain't carrying no weight but yourself.
SCC is the biggest employer is Stafford
SCC is a countywide organisation
Many SCC staff do not simply commute to the town centre and then commute back home again - they are often required to travel countywide
Similarly, the nature of many other people's employ can involve, at short notice, the need to travel out on business
I, for example, cannot carry all my samples of diamond necklaces in my pannier bags, and keep my Gucci suit clean and shiny whilst visiting potential clients in Sabine Street, Paris and Doxey Fields