The Cones Hotline was a telephone hotline introduced by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom John Major in June 1992 to allow members of the public to enquire about roadworks on the country's roads and report areas where traffic cones had been deployed on a road (to close a lane or otherwise restrict traffic flow) for no apparent reason. The telephone number for the hotline (originally 0345 504030, later 08457 504030, then 0300 1235000) was usually displayed on signs after sections of roadworks.
Between March 1994 to March 1995 the hotline was staffed by a single person during office hours and by the duty staff out of hours. It moved to an external contractor for six months, before being brought back in house in September 1995.[1]
The hotline was widely seen[citation needed] as being a waste of government resources, costing several thousand pounds per year to run. In September 1995, having fielded a 17,000 calls, it was announced that the hotline would transitioned into a new system.[2]
- ^ Hansard
- ^ Christian Wolmar (19 September 1995). "Cones Hotline put into cold storage". The Independent. London.