In these modern times, we’re all used to the now commonplace surveys performed by the police and government. They merely fuel our urge to complain constantly to co-workers and friends; however these constant surveys must surely be costing our economy amazing amounts of money, if we are to be in keeping with the popular phrase “time is money”.

To take an example, traffic censuses are increasingly common - one was conducted only this week here in Sutton, making much of the town virtually inaccessible to the ordinary, pushed-for-time and law-abiding citizen. The police wave you over to a cordoned off section of the road, only for you to be asked if you make the road trip everyday by someone in a fluorescent jacket who is anything but a police officer. The police are only used during censuses so that anyone they wave over is required by law to oblige, although they are within all rights to refuse to answer questions. Surely hiring the police as simple mercenaries is a massive waste of police time, and the taxpayer’s money. Perhaps they simply have nothing better to do, or are corrupt enough to accept whatever ridiculous amount of money the companies actually conducting the survey are offering them (on top of their funds from our taxes), whilst costing the rest of the country millions.

It is still unknown how much businesses have been cost by the councils trying their very best to delay honest people on their way to work. And it has not been released how much the surveys cost the taxpayer. On 6th July 2009, Conservative MP for North East Milton Keynes, Mark Lancaster, asked “the Minister of State, Department for Transport … the cost of the recent Milton Keynes council traffic census”, only for his query to be rebuffed by Transport Minister Sadiq Khan, saying that “the cost of individual surveys cannot be provided as the information is commercially confidential.”

The economic cost was demonstrated only this morning, when it was revealed that major jams on the A52 were because of a traffic census. Delaying so people for so long, and on such a grand scale, must be a clear example of the local authority’s sheer lack of common sense - a trait shown by many councils across the country. Because of this, such traffic jams, censuses and worthless questions are now widespread. So here, in Sutton, what does one get for waiting honestly and answering all of their questions? A small card, stating that the survey was for Transport For London and their sponsor, but defiantly refusing to state the reasons why they carried out the survey. Thus one may start to question the motives of the councils - are they actually searching for illegal vehicles and trying to improve our roads and transport? Or is there an ulterior motive to their actions?

I’m almost certain that if the authorities were truly trying to better our transport systems in London, it would be worth the countless million pounds they invest into the surveys. However, 80% of the proposals they gain from such surveys are not put through to development, and it would make more sense to ask the residents who live nearby (using a cheap paper questionnaire) than hire the police for a few days to randomly stop traffic who may have never driven in our modest town before, thus knowing no way to improve it. Therefore, I ask you this one final question: How much longer are we going to submit to our has-been government while they waste our hard-earned money, especially in these dangerous economic times?