Memo to Sat Nav makers...

...and indeed the makers of other route finding aids such as this: when giving directions to people going to St Albans don't sent them through the middle of the City. A bod from the council once told me that 75% of traffic on St Peters Street is through traffic.
It's bad enough having so many people who are lost - or who just don't care - coming through, but to have your software forcing people in is a bit much.
This isn't London - we have a finite number of streets. Teach your software to use them better.

Since elections are pending....

When I first moved back to St Albans the local paper, the Herts Advertiser ran a letter from one of the governors of my old school.
The council wanted to relocate the fire station to part of its playing fields and the letter said that a councillor had told the governor that the school would have to cave in or the council would compulsory purchase (CPO) the site for a 10th of its real value.
This was a lie. The rules of CPO are that an open market value must be paid. The Herts Ad - which is well capable of spinning a news story out of a letter - did not think this lie worthy of a story, probably because these days local hacks lack the expertise to spot something like that. I did toy with the idea of phoning the paper, but had many, many other things on my mind.
The new fire station is now under construction. Local governance: can't beat it.