Safe Speed Forums

Part P y'say? So those who always "did the right thing" have to pay loadsamoney to continue while those who don't care just carry on regardless, and if you know the right people you can have the shoddiest work fully certified?

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

As an Electrician myself what also peeved me with Part P was that even though I have my City & Guilds 240 (of which part of it was for inspection and testing of electrical installations), If I do certain modifications in my own (or anyone else’s house) I would have to get some jobs worth from the council to come and test and inspect my work, at a cost of a couple of hundred pounds.

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Useless laws weaken necessary laws.

Oh I know that feeling well! A few years ago, I wanted to buy a car (a whole £300 worth!) which, it transpired, had been a write-off in some previous existence! My insurers had a hissy fit when they found it had been a "Category B" write off! I remonstrated that there wasn't anything much worng with the car and that it certainly didn't look like it has suffered any accident damage at all - never mind "category B"! Still, they insisted that I got an engineer's report on it. I asked if I could do it, and volunteered the information that I was a chartered engineer whose chosen discipline was vehicle structures and occupant protection but that didn't cut any ice at all with them. They insisted that it had to be a "qualified motor engineer".

..Anyway, I engaged the serices of a pretty decent chap who was mightily amused by the situation and it turned out, on investigation that the car had been worngly classified (clerical error!) and should have been a category "D" write off - it had broken a headlight (which on a £300 car is as good as writing it off)!

And quite often without even realising it!

Thats one of the main reasons why I would rather do it myself! ( the other is that for various family reasons I have to work limited part time and, as a consequence, make less than the minimum wage! The only way I can survive is by doing EVERYTHING myself! (It should come as no surprise that my work vehicle is an ancient VW transporter and my "domestic" transport is an equaly anciient Range Rover! (with LPG) The MIG welder is my freind! ))

(The "Other" other reason IYSWIM is that I frequently think I can do things better! For example, I have TRV's on all my radiators, of what benefit is a "room thermostat" yet apparantly this is a "requirement" on CH systems! (needless to say I do *not* have a "room thermostat"!)

At least I know what I have done, and as a graduate engineer I have a pretty good idea as to whether it is safe or not! I wouldnt trust any bloody stranger to come into my house and monkey arround with my wiring/gas/whatever (And pee in my water tank, rummage through my draws, raid my fridge etc etc etc! )

DON't be affraid to install, say, your own boiler. Just follow the instructions! They are typically VERY GOOD! (remember, they are intended for people who left school at 16 with no GCSE's (or whatever they are called these days))

(Therer are design defeciencys with boilers as supplied however The "Mounting plates" that many wall hung boilers are supplied with are very poor and could be improved! )

D

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"The road to a police state is paved with public safety legislation"

Well - I am a parent #.

My young driver kids wanted anyone BUT me to teach 'em though (I think they thought I'd be too "strict and nick 'em for "speeding" )


Seriously - did what the Mad Doc did - booked block of lessons and then let them practise with lots of different decent "enthusiasts" around the family and pal circle and then "tightened them up" with another block of lessons with an ADI before they took the practical test. They followed up with Pass Plus and .. yep.. they are also IAM Members etc too



We do go out to schools and colleges and explain very clearly the dangers out there. Yep - we do use some "shock photos" to underpin the message of what can happen if we fail to COAST.

Unfortunately, there's always that 5% who never quite understand the message

We also find too many kids fail to wear seatbelts these days.



Oh I agree. My own driving instructor told me that this was a life skill which I would continue to learn for life. My Hendon tutors said the same: that passing the Advanced Class 1 Hendon course was just the beginning and that these skills would have to be built on continually.

I think Pass Plus should be made compulsory as this allows the young driver to get a little more experience out there and then fine-tune. I think we all live in the vicinity of a motorway/A(M)/ or a fast dual carriageway which has a "motorway feel and look" which could be used to meet this rubric.


I also think that country windy roads must be a compulsory element as these can be lethal for too many novices

This might lead to a nation of drivers more likely to leave a safety bubble around their car instead of tailgating, allowing the motorway speed limit to be raised.




Yep - we've already discussed the "carrot" of insurance based on training and not post code. Naturally the value of the car would remain more or less unchanged as regards "insured valuable against potential loss". But driver expertise and qualifications as well as an absence of "fault claims" should be taken into account.

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

To be fair, the market did need regulating, I've seen some appaulling stuff in my time and it was getting more and more often, especially in areas such as small outfit fast-turnaround speculative flat refurbs. sparks will want £3k & insist on rewire, moriz know leckrik - will do lekkik - just change sokkiks - all is needed - and for labourer rate too! Then it's up to me to tell the new owners that their nice new flat is a death trap and needs $$$, and BTW thats all inclusive of smashing all your nice decor too. Sick and tired of it.

So what the government did was to make honest people pay money and jump through hoops, while the bandits just ignore it all and carry on regardless- now with an evan bigger competative edge! So obviously I wouldn't recommend you do yer own electrics, but bugger all will come of it if you do.

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

Thats why I grapped loads of unused old style twin & earth from work when they changed over

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Re vera, cara mea, mea nil refert

I suspect you tailor your delivery to the audience, however remembering back to the dawn of my driving the use of shock photos would just have made me suspicious of the message, I would have decided that if you could not make a logical argument without resorting to such tactics it would limited use to me. Mind you Mr Spock was my hero when I was a teenager.

Back then what interested me about advanced driving (read books before even getting a provisional) was the way observation and space could be used to drive quicker if not necessarily faster, i.e higher average rather than top speed, and avoiding accidents was about avoiding the hassle of explaining it to my dad. Starting to ride bikes did shift my ideas a bit though, avoiding accidents became the priority.

Shifting back to the OT, while the miles done with my dad were valuable experience, including the first time I drove the car from cold and nearly crashed because the choke meant the car did not slow much when I came off the throttle, the lessons provided the extra knowledge I really needed. My DI was an ex-police instructor and towards the end he was covering techniques well beyond those needed to simply pass the test, I would therefore have to side on the idea of making at least some professional lessons compulsory providing they go beyond just 'how to pass the test'.

Perhaps something like the CBT before a new driver even gets a provisional license to drive on the road and a system more like the IAM observed drives should be how you gain a full license. That would hopefully lead drivers into taking further training to gain higher levels of competency.

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Driving fast is for a particular time and place, I can do it I just only do it occasionally because I am a gentleman.
- James May