Lib Dems launch new initiative to make Islington's roads safer

1.53.30pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 4th Jun 2004

Liberal Democrat Islington council has become one of the first London boroughs to sign up to the European Road Safety Charter, pledging to make Islington's roads even safer through a new project called the Mobile Initiative Speed Sign Project (MISSP).

Islington's new Mayor Joan Coupland officially signed the European Road Safety Charter at the Annual Council on 11th May. The Charter sets out the target to halve the number of deaths on the roads by 2010 and general principles to meet it.

As part of this the council is launching a new project, the Mobile Initiative Speed Sign Project, which detects speeds of approaching vehicles and flashes up a warning message advising drivers that they are speeding. The mobile speed sign will be used in areas where traffic speeds are higher than average and where there are lots of vulnerable road users such as around schools. The sign will be moved to a different place each week so that drivers don't become used to seeing it.

Councillor Bridget Fox, Executive Member for Sustainability said:

"This Charter is an exciting opportunity for us to highlight our commitment to road safety and to launch this new initiative. Only recently I was sad to learn that a child had been knocked down so this is still a very real and serious issue.

"We know that traffic calming is not universally popular which is why we are always keen to look at new ways of slowing cars and making our roads safer.

"Meanwhile road deaths in Islington are falling, accidents involving children are already down 30% and I was reassured to hear that ambulance response times have continued to improve."

Mayor Joan Coupland added:

"One of the things I'm looking forward to as Mayor is meeting local children. But they are the ones who are most at risk on our roads. So I was pleased to be able to show at the start of my year, how dedicated we are to saving lives."

THE FACTS

Improving road safety is a key priority for Lib Dem Islington council. They have introduced a number of schemes including the "Walking bus" initiative in schools, 20mph schemes where residents want them and the number of school crossing patrols provided by the Council has doubled. Accident rates in Islington are falling as a result. There were 30% fewer child accidents and 11% fewer road accidents overall. The Council has spent well over £7million on road safety measures since 2001.