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• Leeds-based National Breakdown is sensibly installing a device at
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its new £5 million headquarters which will allow deaf customers to use the national telephone network in case of a breakdown.
A £200 Minicom V system allows the deaf to use the telephone themselves, using a dedicated free telephone line to National Breakdown's national control room and to 1,500 specialist garage agents. The deaf motorist simply uses the Minicorn V. a typewriter-sized machine, to transmit and receive messages which appear on a small screen built into the equipment.
• The recent publicity about problems at Swedish car manufacturer Saab has prompted fresh rumours of a link-up between sister company Scania and Volvo.
Now this is a story which seems to surface every couple of years, but my hawk-eyed reporters have unearthed evidence (see picture) that this time the rumour has a little foundation.
Top Swedish engineers have laboured through the long light Swedish summer days to produce a truck which is compatible with both makes. The Scanvo (or Voa) matches a Volvo FLIO with a Scania 112M, and conies complete with two steering wheels, personal sun visors for each of the drivers and quite the worst aerodynamic profile of any modern truck.
The insider whisper is that the engines of the two donor vehicles were matched in one of Volvo's famous impact tests.
Scanvo's makers claim the vehicle combines the very best attributes of the two marques, including the parts lists. Though still very much a prototype vehicle we are sure both Scania and Volvo would be delighted to hear from anyone who would like to put the truck through a pre-launch operator trial.
• Spending on roads has been very much in the news recently, with Paul Channon's announcement last month of an additional £7 billion over the next 10 years.
In fact, the latest Department of Transport figures for total spending on roads show how much road spending has fallen since the 1970s. In 197475, total spending on roads in the UK, corrected. to allow for inflation, totalled £5,150 million. Last year total spending on roads reached 23,254 million — in real terms, less than two thirds the figure of 14 years earlier. Indeed spending on roads has hovered around the 23,200 million level since 1977-78.
So, that extra £7 billion over 10 years will not even bring us up to the spending levels of the mid seventies.
CI Ever ready to help his fellow MPs, the Transport Secretary has kindly organised more traffic lights and pedestrian crossings for Parliament Square to prevent MPs risking life and limb to get to the Commons to vote. Talk about charity begins at home.
• Worried about spiritual refreshment when travelling through the Channel Tunnel? In need of a quick prayer before dashing over to the Continent? Don't despair! Kentish clerics plan to put up Christian kiosks at the Chunnel's UK terminals.
Discussions are under way for "information booths" at Ashford and Folkestone, and the Kent Ecumenical Council has appointed a chaplain for Folkestone and Dover with special responsibility for the Tunnel's development.
• A proud tradition in CV musicianship has been maintained on a high note from Leyland Daf. The lorry builder's brass band has become the first "All England Masters" following its success in championships held at Cambridge.
Where's there's brass there's brass it seems, for the band not only won the winner's trophy it also picked up a cheque to the tune of 23,500 and musical director Richard Evans' mastery of the conductor's baton gained him the City of Cambridge Cup.
No doubt Leyland Dal's triumph was celebrated by a ghostly fanfare from the legendary shades of the former world-renowned Foden band now sponsored by the Britannia Building Society.