DrEvil

Just to warn you guys, not sure what its all about, but on the road out of Farnham towards Odiham, just after the roundabout past the Total garage, there are 30 mph warning signs, and the reason being they are stopping people at tandom (today) for one reason or another, not sure what...

Rgds, Alex

DrEvil

Can someone explain what these 'census' things are all about, as I've never seen one like it with a van and everything...

Cheers, Alex

Stuart H

These are carried out by the local authority to find out:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>What the postcode of the start of your journey is
<LI>What the postcode of the destination of your journey is
</UL>
The police are only there to avoid impatient drivers killing the census staff and to generally keep an eye on safety.

[This message has been edited by Stuart H (edited 30 October 2000).]

AWD

Stuart

Do you have to comply in the census if you get flagged down? I mean, if you're in a hurry can you decline and drive off.

DrEvil

Thanks Stuart, just getting paranoid as I get stopped so much, due to the number of thiefts of imprezas round my way...

Rob W

Yes, Went through there this morning, didn't get stopped as they were full up. You think that they wouldn't bother as there was enough traffic around anyway Did you see the big old tree cut up just past the census?
Rob

DrEvil

Rob W,

yeah saw the tree, that could of made a mess of my car.. ekkk.. doesnt bare thinking about!..

rgds, Alex

boomer

A colleague of mine was stopped (twice) last week by similar "censors" coming out of Bracknell (probably Farnham way) - not a problem refusing to give any information (other than the ump-teen mile queue of traffic generated by the B-Ark people).

I fully agree with StuartH's observation that the Police are only there to stop motorists from killing the census staff!

mb

DrEvil

I s'pose you could say "I work for the MOD, and could not possibly tell you" .. just a thought..

Neil Smalley

You could always use the starwars method.

Look up at the census taker, wave your hand sideways and say "You can go on your way, your not the car we're looking for"

Rich_R

They were in Ascot last week. They located themselves in some stupid places considering it was rush-hour

Rich.

ptholt

Over the past 2 months i've seen loads of these round the back roads of guildford, farnham, aldershot, fleet etc.

one word of warning dont try and drive past if they asked you to stop as the police get very stroppy.

My dad and i were out one day in a rush to get somewhere (airport i think) and they pulled us to ask the above, my dad said excuse we have a flight to catch, and they still made us wait. So when they did get to our car dad refused to answer and the police threatened us with all sorts!
In the end we just gave a blatantly wrong answer (i.e. set off from the direction and going to place we'd just come from - that went down well hehehe).

AWD

That's pretty off - insisting that you answer the questions even when you're in a real hurry.

What did they threaten you with?

Guiddy

Jus' tell 'em you got a dead body in the boot and are lookin' for the nearest place to dump it! That you don't really care what the postcode might be!

boomer

The crazy thing at the moment is that due to the recent floods etc. everyone is taking different routes to _normal_, thus any data that they collect will be totally inaccurate!

'bout time someone wrote to the local press about the waste of (poll)tax payers money.

mb

[This message has been edited by boomer (edited 03 November 2000).]

AWD

boomer

Are you saying that despite all the current road chaos that they are still carrying out the census?