£7,000,000 Spent On A Roundabout... Did It Make Any Difference? NO! 

"...middle class vandalism at its finest." Just..... yes!

Hi Jon, I was the person who single-handedly campained to Central Bedfordshire Council , the BBC and the wider media about keeping the footbridge. The plan was to remove it to install a surface level crossing like on the other three arms. The bridge is used extstensively by residents and visitors to the woods every day and it's removal would have been a very real safety concern for all the schoolkids using it to get to the rest of the village during rush hours. Thanks god it didnt happen. And this project was approved in the name of the 'Levelling up' scheme.. one meant for deprived regions of the UK. Clophill has the highest ratio of Ferraris per capita in Bedfordshire and couldn't be further away from the real need!! .. and despite promises from the council and the civil engineering company that carried it out - it's full of flaws and a complete waste of money..as you correctly identified - but since when did that get in the way of an infrastructure project just for the sake of it..?

Why is no one ever sacked over ridiculous projects like this?

I was once told by an eminent QC that you cant make an incompetence or negligence case stick against a council or its staff because the bar is set so low in terms of expectation.

Bedfordshire council: "How can I launder and embezzle £6,950,000 into mine all my corrupt mates consultation firms and shell corporations?"

What angers is that they find money for these , yet our council closed a popular swimming pool because they said they could not afford £75K to repair the roof.

"Local council wastes money on infrastructure project" There's a headline that gets repeated all too often.

In other news, local construction firm bosses pack seven million into their bags and say "goodbye to the circus", allegedly.

That's a very fine trunk on that there knitted elephant, excellent work Agnes. 😆

You forgot to add this took over 1 year to implement with diversions through villages and misery every day!!!

"ok, but it was £7m pounds of taxpayers money, so it doesn't matter" ... every politician, everywhere.

I drive over this roundabout multiple times per day and can confirm the new improvements have 100% made it worse. I’m a truck driver and require more space when driving round roundabouts - when it was 1 lane to enter roundabout it was much safer. Now i have cars trying to squeeze up the inside of me to overtake on the roundabout then cut me off…

Having once been a local Borough Councillor that was expelled from the party for voting against a motion, made worse for them as a hung council. The amount of money spent on consultants and feasibility studies was mind blowing, the results often ignored and the party's own scheme was passed, often causing more problems than it was designed to fix.

Never thought I'd see Clophill's roundabout on here! It's an absolute nightmare coming off the A507 towards Shefford as they've added in two lanes to go straight on when you're coming from the west side, but it immediately merges into one lane on the east side. Not once seen anyone use the traffic lights on the south side, though given the speeds people do approaching the A6 from there, it's probably no wonder. Bedfordshire's not had much luck with traffies this past year though - they installed a new set by Doolittle Mill on the Flitwick/Ampthill border a few months back, and before the week was up a tree fell down and rendered them useless. Whole county seems to be in a constant state of temporary lights tbh.

I live local to here, and for the last decade or so, developers have been trying to get planning permission to build thousands of houses between Silsoe and Barton-Le-Clay (which is just south off this roundabout on the A6). Said planning permission is extremely unwanted by all local residents. One of the reasons the planning permission keeps being refused is due to the surrounding infrastructure not being able to cope with the added road/footpath traffic. I wouldn't be surprised if this upgrade was done to allow this planning permission to go forward next time it is submitted!

"We're a bit short of money, we're going to have to raid your pensions".

Some years ago a roundabout on the Buckingham bypass was "improved", the work caused mayhem for a long time as it took longer than expected. As soon as it opened it was immediately apparent that the junction had been made worse and work soon started to amend the design , this took another two years to complete. I have no idea how much that all cost. I suspect that the Buckinghamshire roundabout designers quietly moved to nearby Bedfordshire to continue their wicked ways.

Absolutely loved this video, everything spot on! Extra tidbits about this from a local: The 'traffic survey' prior to planning the changes was carried out during covid lockdowns. "It's not very busy," said the council. "NO SH*T, WE'RE ALL CONFINED TO OUR HOMES," said those with more than one braincell to share between them. Yes, they literally carried out their official checks and paid people to sit and count (no) traffic while the country were under house arrest. The huge unused pathway that's almost wide enough for a car, goes up towards an unused crossing (near petrol station) required the clearing of a huge amount of trees, where they built a temporary site office, clearing all the land up to an old bridge. Rather than expand the road and pathway to use up this cleared area and improve traffic flow, they left it barren and in fact have NARROWED the road at this side of the junction, making it worse than it was. The plans changed so much. It could have been excellent, but it was cut back and fumbled and honestly deserves every white elephant placed there. Also, regarding the footbridge, the plan by central beds was to ignore the locals who fought and argued, and demolish the bridge anyway. Fortunately, they ran out of money so couldn't do what they planned and left the bridge.

As a frequent user of the White Elephant roundabout I can absolutely confirm, I have never seen flooding at this roundabout. It also does not seem to have changed traffic what so ever, except the customary delays while the works were in place.

Based on my observations as a night HGV driver the biggest cost of any Road improvement is the setting out and removal of thousands of road cones 10 miles from and 5 miles after one bloke working on the road. This excludes the two guys in a van at every possible entry onto the 15 mile speed restricted cone filled empty carriageway.

Sarcasm has no bounds

I live in Central Bedfordshire and can confirm this was a complete was of time and money and hasn’t improved anything. Love your videos. Keep up the great work.

Don’t forget this just a mile up the road from Central Bedfordshire Council HQ

And let’s not forget the MONTHS of traffic chaos at this busy interchange while these roadworks were completed. A detriment to any business in the area that had to suffer this nonsense.

I have to drive through here on my commute and it's shit. Should have invested it into widening some more of the A6 and A507.

Amazing they didn't add traffic lights at the roundabout though!

Have a look at jcn 14 on the M5, they spent over 1.5 million on traffic lights for peak traffic, but now turn them off at peak times because of the chaos it causes, but leave them on at off peak times when they were never needed in the first place, over 15 years ago!!!!

I used to commute to bedford up the A6, it was terrible before the works and nothings changed, never seen it flood - for extra sh*ts & giggles they also closed one the A6 lanes coming in to clophill - so the tale backs reach all the way to the top of deadmans hill.

I live close nearby and use this roundabout often...and you are absolutely correct, a massive waste of money.

Those local schools that don't exist are the only schools in the entire country under budget, with class sizes below target numbers, with 0 days off from pupils, and 0 failures on tests and exams!

We need all council spending to be fully open and published online. All contracts and links for all the people involved.

I work in Civil Engineering designing projects like this. Does my absolute nut in how moneys wasted!

As this project took one year to complete it allowed the council to reduce the lanes onto the nellieabout to one causing even more traffic chaos for all that time. I enjoyed queuing 25 minutes to get into Clophill so it was worth the whole Seven Million.

Love your unique style, never change!

All too common unfortunately. Maybe it's linked to the theory that if a council doesn't use up all its allocated budget in a year, then it's deemed not to need as much in the year to come. So they spend every last penny on whatever they can. Loony economics, but there you go...

There are some very, very good salespeople working for construction companies, it seems.

Thank you for addressing that particular elephant in the room 🐘

Hilarious but serious at the same time Love it More! More!

Wonderful job. Perhaps the BBC could take note?

As a local retired resident i no longer use the roundabout to commute however a regular commuter has said traffic flow has inproved however as a rate payer had i been told £7million would be spent i would have asked for something a lot slicker than what we have got.

I don't normally comment but I've been watching this guy for ages and he is brilliant..unique. keep up the good work 😊

Another great vid Jon 👍🏾👍🏾. More proof that councils just waste money.

Jon you need to bring out a 2025 calendar….”crap junctions and roundabouts top 12”

My local roundabout. What a wonderful local attraction. I do miss all the road closures and distruption during the 'improvements'...the good old days.

Possibly the best Auto Shenanigans video to date - they just keep getting better!

Yes caused months of chaos for a solidly wider roundabout and some extra paint. At least they didn’t get rid of the clophill footbridge

Nellie the elephant ending. Purrfect.

I love that you call out the 'improvements' councils make as the bull it is.

By far one of the best videos youve done so far mate.

Oooo Councils do love wasting our money don't they !! ..

I used this roundabout a heck of a lot during its "construction/refurbishment" only used it once since completion... I saw no difference in terms of speed getting through/around the roundabout or the queues of traffic.... a massive improvement for sure

There are only three things that could make this channel better.... More Bev, May & Rik!!!

channel idea: things in the middle of roundabouts that few know about. Most have trees and bushes hiding substations or access to sewers, but I'm guessing some are more interesting.

Sadly every council is the same 😢

Hello Jon. If you think Bedfordshire council has created a white elephant then Norfolk county council can trump that with it's absolute farce of a project on the A1074 heading into Norwich. Not only did the residents object to the creation of bus lanes for only 2 buses an hour and the buses hub that only one service will use, but it has also added a small 400yrd bus lane out of the city to improve congestion where there has never been any. All this money came from the government apparently but everyone says it could have been spent more wisely. We said no but they've done it anyway and it's taken a year so far and still not finished.

Waste of taxpayers money

Just brilliant. What a ridiculous place Britain had become.

£6m on H&S, with risk assessments, etc, and £1m of actual work done.

I use this roundabout regularly and you have taken the words right out of my mouth! I don't know whether to laugh or cry when confronted with this sort of wasteful negligence 😂😭🤣

What a bargain! 😳

Road planners/councils should definitely watch your videos before working on roads. Quality work my friend 👏

Pedant alert! That elephant is crocheted, not knitted.

It’s never a waste of money to whomever pocketed it.

It was £7 million well spent... it gave you a shed load of material for yet another entertaining video!

I used to travel this roundabout every work day for 10 years. It never flooded! The surrounding meadows did during the winter months. The worst water on the roundabout was following heavy rain causing standing water on half the exit lane to Ampthill. I suspect fitting proper drains to the roundabout would have solved that issue at a tad under the £7m spent. It would also have left the tea wagon there. Maybe part of the strategy for moving the tea van on was because of the expensive white elephant - sorry, necessary roundabout, and not a straight (much cheaper) legal eviction. Not that it needed moving on, traffic stopping there never caused me an issue in 10 years. Good video though. Nice to see the surrounding area from the air rather than the limited windscreen view! Keep up the good work, love watching your vids.

I liked this video, so clicked the button specifically placed to demonstrate my liking of the video.

The new road surfaces are wonderfully smooth!. They spent many months and a lot off money and it still looks virtually the same.

At least it's still a true roundabout.

Corruption at every turn

I guess the budget must have been quite tight, otherwise the council could surely have spent a lot more than £7m. 😁

Would like you to interview the council employee that voted for this

It's Central Bedfordshire Council. The county-wide council was abolished in 2009

These roadworks took forever and caused misery.. leaving us with a roundabout that is no different from what we had. Can we have some checks and balances back? Great video, well thought out and planned 🙏🏽

I go through this roundabout maybe 6 times a year or less and haven't realised that it changed apart from the temporary traffic lights disappearing

Close to me heart! My sadly deceased lawyer and good friend for decades lived in Clophill, and I used to have a business partnership with a Company based in nearby Maulden. Everything you say is correct. Total utter waste of money that was completely unnecessary.

The requirements to become a counsellor are British Citizen, 18+, live locally, not bankrupt, not been in prison in the last 5 years Note the total absence of any qualifications, or even knowledge to do the job ...

Could it possibly be that our council don't work for us?

I was told as a child in the 60's by my mum that everyone knows that if you are not very bright you can always get a job with the council.

I Nelly coughed my coffee out to the tune of 7 million quid wasted making zero improvements to the roundabout.

Did anyone else think of the Toy Dolls at the end! 😂 Does anyone else remember them....

And what have local councils done for us? Oh yes waste money!

Which councillors mate got the £7m contract?

i drove on it the other day and wandered what the hell they spent all that time doing when working on it. its mostly the same as it was and just as busy.

On 16th August 2024, they started digging up the new verges and placed signage to advise of roadworks commencing on 23rd August - at the new Clophill roundabout!

£38million bridge to nowhere over the A46 in Warwickshire. Was meant to be completed in 2022 and still not done. And no completion date. And no idea what the cost is. Thanks Warwickshire district council. You should do a video 👍👍

I love your style, I think you would make a good anchor on the evening news, and would last about 15 seconds!

Its £7m due to corruption, quite simple. Councils cgaf about 'value for money' when it comes to lining the pockets of the private companies that bung them huge personal payments in return.

Bravo monsieur! Bravo!

the crossing on the Northern leg makes sense as it connects two sets of housings and may well discourage a few cars so people can walk!

And here's me waiting for the Toy Dolls version. Never mind.

The end credit music, oh by golly did that make me smile.

thank you for your insights into the UK's enormance waste of money on its roads. Makes me feel not so alone watching mine waste even more one dubious projects. The 9 year bridge replacement project in my town comes to mind (just one or two more years to go), and the roundabout that was just turned into a 3 way stop, with one road blocked so a new and larger roundabout can be installed...

Jon, you're hitting some nerves once again!

The A507 has always been a very busy rat run between the A1 at Stotfold and Milton Keynes which is a single carriageway along its entire length. Anyway, when I go that way, I avoid the route and cut through Hitchin, Barton-le-Clay, Harlington and join the M1 at J12 at Toddington rather than J13 which also has to accommodate the end of the Bedford Bypass. Another bypass was added near to Ridgmont some time later but that was only when Centre Parcs had opened its Woburn Forest holiday camp. It was upgraded where it bypassed several towns and villages in the 1980's and 1990's on its Eastern end at Stotford, Arlessey and Shefford but the central portion where this is located on it its original route and the bridge over the railway had been to be strengthened over Arlessey station a few years back as it had structural problems.

Clophill - I had a very enjoyable evening there seventeen years ago..............sigh

This is the best video I've ever seen about anything

At this point I'm convinced that all local councils give their road "improvement" schemes to their children & tell them to give it a go. The level of pure incompetence is so blatant that they don't even try to hide it. 7 million pounds, a roundabout is basically a pile of dirt with curbs around it.

you cracked me up John ! great video mate

I cannot imagine the stupidity that went into that.

It looks like Caerphilly County Borough Council’s highways department taught them everything they know.