MP Fleur Anderson recently posted a video on the social media platform X, asking telecoms company BT to help remove two unused phone boxes on Putney High Street.
Anderson argues that these boxes are preventing a bus lay-by from being created. As a result, buses have no choice but to stop in the road, causing congestion.
Now, I have no political affiliation to Anderson or her party, and on any other day, I would watch this video and keep on scrolling. But I happen to live in the area and travel on Putney High Street almost every day. So I know for a fact that if anything, Anderson is underselling the situation.
During peak hours, it can take me upwards of 45 minutes to travel from one side of Putney Bridge to the other by bus because of this congestion. For reference, it takes me about 10 minutes to walk the same distance.
This is a popular suburban area of London, and many people own their own cars, which is unusual for the city but not to the extent that this level of traffic should be seen on a daily basis. There are clear bottlenecks on the route, and once you get past these bus stops and towards the bridge, traffic clearly eases up and returns to the familiar stop-start flow seen across the rest of London.
To me, then, this daily traffic jam is a planning failure, but it also raises questions around red tape and productivity.
Apathy, red tape, and productivity
I will confess that I am not sure why BT has not removed these telephone boxes, but I can’t imagine that it would take longer than a couple of months at most to have them safely removed and paved over to make way for new buses.
I will confess that the ex-journalist in me is tempted to shoot them a press query and ask exactly why this is the case. But if an MP is having to plead on social media with the billion-pound telecoms giant, I am not sure I would get much of a response anyway.
I will make an educated guess and say the issue is likely a result of a combination of apathy, too much red tape, and growing questions around productivity.
Removing the telephone boxes will inevitably involve some combination of planning permissions, budget discussions, and speaking with the right stakeholders before it can be approved. It’s a relatively small red tape issue in the grand scheme of things, but one only has to look at the HS2 debacle to see how it can strangle the country and flush billions of pounds down the toilet.
Much like the HS2 development, the traffic affecting Putney is not a new issue – it’s been present in the nearly four years I have lived in the area. Which means that there have been hundreds of thousands of hours lost to write articles such as this one while stuck on a bus.
Which brings us to the issue of productivity.The OBR revised its growth forecasts following last week’s Budget, based on the fact that the country is simply not working and producing as much as expected. Real GDP is forecast to grow by 1.5% on average over the forecast, 0.3 percentage points slower than we projected in March, due to lower underlying productivity growth.
One can’t help but wonder how many other high streets across the country are jammed up in a similar manner, how many minor delays, hiccups, and jobsworths are contributing to this figure.
Ryan Brothwell is an Editor at HotMinute. This article is an opinion piece and does not reflect the wider views of the publication.
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