Amazing, but not surprising that they spent £300k on a scheme without any cameras and staff to enforce the car sharing lane - and these are the very people who say that councils are skint and have to close easy targets (that stir up emotion [its all the evil government cuts! Booo!]) libraries, swimming pools and day centres.

Funny how they always can find funds for hair-brained schemes such as these (it wouldn't surprise me if all the original "feasibility reports" were, shall we say, "biased") and service that the public (and especially the less well off) actually use.

There's a similar sort of thing near me in Cambridge - a (relatively new - year or so old) link road running from the M11/A10 junction to Addenbrookes Hospital, which is supposedly only for staff and patients, "enforced" during the rush hours, but all the council and police can do is write to the individuals concerned with a stern letter (no fines are legal as far as I know), as the road is not a private road and isn't limited to emergency services vehicles. Seems rather a waste to use the cameras and write the letters, especially as soon they'll be thousands more using it when the large housing development next door is completed!

The thing with car-sharing is that if it’s feasible, people are usually already doing it. With people nowadays commuting large distances from all over the place in order to have a job, and to keep sweet with the boss often having to put extra unpaid time in NOT on the same day as your colleague has to, car-sharing is difficult.

When I started work at a large site in the late 60s, most people did 8:45 to 5pm and many travelled on a works bus. Some others shared a weekly car rota and the rest walked or cycled to work. Gradually car ownership increased, but when companies introduced flexitime to ease congestion, sharing became less convenient. These days workers commute a lot further and the whole idea is usually impossible.