We had a little bit of local excitement yesterday when the A23 was closed because of a bomb scare. Traffic was backed up all over town when the road was closed between Pease Pottage and Bolney village. One of the exits was so backed up that traffic was being pulled off the motorway at the exit before and diverted through town.
Details were a bit vague about what the problem was. “Suspect package” was the phrase used, which conjures up images of a discarded bag, but today the mystery has been cleared up: it turns out that the culprit was a bat box.
The bat box was a device installed on a bridge by the Highways Agency, or installed by ecologists on behalf of the Highways Agency so that bat movements can be measured as part of ecological surveys into the effects of widening the road at Handcross. Not only that, but the company installing the box, and others like it, had told police about them so they would know who to contact if they got vandalised or stolen.
Despite the cock-up and chaos, the police lost none of their talent for understatement. After blowing up this box (which costs about £1000, at least thats what the HA are telling the insurance company) the police said that a package was investigated but found to be harmless, adding that it had been “disrupted” by the bomb disposal team.
Disrupted in the same way as JFK was ‘hampered’ by Lee Harvey Oswald I suppose.
I do hope that no bats were ‘disrupted’ when they blew up the box.
Perhaps they were just ‘inconvenienced’.
Still, I’m glad we are all safe…
Not quite in the same league but yesterday’s travel news finished up with the very surreal information that there were delays on the M6 due a filing cabinet on the carriageway.
I also though bat habitats were protected by law. Big fines all round!
The bat box was not a habitat or anything like that. If I understand it right it is some sort of machine which detects bat movements so they can calculate the population.
I can understand how someone passing could be worried about a mysterious box with wires and a battery involved, but the old bill should have known better, especially after being told about them.
The real mystery is those signs on the M25 on devices called ‘pollution control valve’. Can they really just turn a valve to control pollution? Why not just leave it on full!