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Newsletter - 16 December 2017
In this newsletter:
  • Declaration of every child’s right to safe & healthy streets
  • The Hillsborough report on the arrogance of unaccountable power
  • Scrutiny of Merseyside Police road safety performance
  • Regional road safety strategy update
  • Sustainable Safety in the Netherlands

Declaration of every child’s right to safe & healthy streets


Worldwide, 500 children are killed by motor vehicles every day, but a new campaign aims to change that.

The #EveryLife Declaration and campaign is being organised by the United Nations with 16 other international organisations.

See the powerful 1 minute video (click on the image).

The Articles (abbreviated) in the Declaration are
  • Every child has the right to use roads and streets without threat to life or health
  • Every child has the right to breathe clean air
  • Every child has the right to an education, without risk of injury
  • Every child has the right to explore their world in safety
  • Every child has the right to protection from violence
  • Every child has the right to be heard.
Read more / sign up at www.everylife.org. #EveryLife

New charter to prevent the arrogance of unaccountable power

Following the Hillsborough disaster, the Right Reverend James Jones has written a report detailing the suffering of the families.

His report The patronising disposition of unaccountable power was published in November - "patronising disposition" seems to be a polite term for "arrogance".

The report points out that abuses of power leading to tragedies and suffering continue, and advocates a Charter that public bodies will commit themselves to, including that they will
  • place the public interest above their own reputation
  • approach public scrutiny with candour, in an open, honest and transparent way, and
  • ensure that processes are in place to allow the public to hold them to account.
Read more at https://wacm.org.uk/59.html

Abuses of power regarding road safety by the Merseyside authorities making it hard to get at the truth or get deficiencies put right are familiar to Merseyside road safety volunteers. It will be interesting to see if the Merseyside authorities commit to the Charter and change their culture.

Scrutiny of Merseyside Police road safety performance

The Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner Jane Kennedy meets the senior officers of Merseyside Police every 3 months to review the Police performance.

It is a step forward that road safety is now considered at these meetings, and there are some signs at the latest meeting of more road safety initiatives being taken, and provisionally a fall in the number of serious road casualties in Merseyside. However there was no discussion at the latest meeting of
A report on the meeting is at https://wacm.org.uk/66.html.

Update on the regional road safety strategy

The new road safety strategy for the Liverpool City Region was published in July 2017, but many road safety volunteers feel it is inadequate and the measures included will not achieve the target reduction in injuries. At two recent meetings, there was agreement that more needs to be done. The agreed meeting notes have been published:

Systematic Safety in the Netherlands

Amidst the uncaring and incompetent approach to road safety so often seen in Merseyside, it's always good to see what can be done to make walking and cycling much safer when an effort is made.

This 8 minute Youtube video on the Dutch system (which is also used in many other places) is worth watching - it is written for a North American audience but it is still very relevant to the UK. (Click on the image.)


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Previous newsletters

See Newsletter - 23rd November 2017
See Newsletter - 2nd November 2017











Last updated: 19 May 2018