• IS it my imagination or has the end of the financial year anything to do with the appearance of yet more road works?

In this small central London area, the arrival of barriers, signs, and the rest have too often been a feature of local life, with successive excavations and road closures coming with depressing frequency in that small area within sight of my own address.

It’s almost as if it’s arranged to ensure maximum intrusion and inconvenience. Seymour Place and York Street and Harcourt Street, Marylebone, are seldom free from any of the above intrusions, more’s the pity.

Meanwhile council taxes increase in line with council-approved incursions of this onerous, ongoing, and apparently disorganised sort.

MC NEWBERRY
Harcourt Street, W1