One day this week your writer met a gentleman pushing a pram with his cherished grandson in it. It was at the time in the morning when children were heading to school. The gentleman told me a car and a lorry had just been in collision near Boothferry Junior School. We then stood and watched a very large articulated lorry lurch and totter as it struggled to turn from Marcus Street into Dunhill Road, having come from the Junction 36 estate via Kent Road, passing through the cars, pupils and parents on its way.

There is a 7.5t limit, clearly indicated on Seavy Road (see the photo for this update) so large articulated lorries should not be on Kent Rd, Marcus St and Dunhill Rd.

Shortly afterwards a lively discussion broke out on the All About Goole Facebook group about chaos outside Boothferry Junior School due to the number of parents dropping children off at school by car.

Far more people drive their children to Boothferry Junior School than the narrow streets of the densely populated area round the entrance were designed (before the age of popular car ownership) to handle. No thought seems to have been given when Boothferry Junior School was planned and built as to whether the streets round it were suited to a significant proportion of the pupils arriving by car.

Meanwhile, the Health and Safety Executive have said that while the Victoria Pleasure Grounds construction work comes within their remit, the construction traffic is not their responsibility – that falls to East Riding Council. East Riding Council of course have developed and approved the plans which as they stand will send large lorries past the Boothferry Junior School gates on the blind 90 degree corner where Marcus Street and Newport Street meet. Self regulation at its finest.

In recent years we’ve had, among other things, the Post Office Scandal in which those who ran Post Offices have been prosecuted, criminalised, financially ruined and made social outcasts because the accounting system the Post Office chose was faulty and Post Office bosses systematically covered it up. Many of those prosecuted and otherwise harmed have still not been compensated.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has resigned this week because the Church of England failed to stop a married and respectable barrister violently abusing boys for decades. A barrister knows very well how to use the law to intimidate people. The organisation acted to protect itself.

Local authorities have staff who know exactly how to get round laws, regulations and rules. They also know how to weaponise the legal system and use it to attack those individuals who democratically disagree with policies. They know how to use planning regulations and contracts to make sure businesses tow the line.

We are told that an elected mayor will devolve power and bring greater democracy to our region. Yet, as local people are pointing out, at the most local level Goole Town Councillors voted to force every household to pay a precept to fund the council but it the same time it has taken out all detail in the published minutes so residents don’t even get the basic courtesy of reading what has been discussed and decided at council meetings. Many feel it is not democracy that is being devolved, but further strengthening of East Riding and Goole Town Councils’ already authoritarian, autocratic behaviour.

This petition and the updates come out of chance conversations around the town where the opinions are very different to the PR put out by the local authorities here.

A really good outcome for Goole would be East Riding Council and Goole Town Council adopting the substance, rather than an insincere display, of democracy, and start listening to and acting upon the concerns and wishes of residents rather than obstructing, sidelining and attacking anybody who questions decisions - before there is another tragedy or outrage for those in power to resign over.

Should we hold our breath?