BBC Politics Show Coverage of the Lollipop Campaign

On 3rd April the BBC Politics Show Southwest featured an item about the campaign to Save the Lollipop People including Annette Brooke MP's speech in an adjournement debate in Parliament and with supporting comments from Lord Knight. This piece is now avaiable on YouTube, property of the BBC. The full transcript of the parliamentary debate is available here.

Suffolk Lollipop People May be Saved

Suffolk County Council have appointed a new Council Leader, Mark Bee.

Within hours of being elected as the leader of Suffolk County Council on Monday , Mark Bee pledged to save school crossing patrols and slow down the divestment of waste sites and libraries.

For more details follow this link

Why does Ferndown need a lollipop lady? One car every three seconds....

Campaigners in Ferndown in Dorset carried out their own survey of their school crossing patrol and discovered that with a car passing every 3 seconds it would be almost impossible for children to cross safely to school if the Lollipop Lady goes with the cuts. To read the full report follow this link

An Update

This week I spoke to the Road Safety Officer at Suffolk County Council where they are on 90 days notice with no ongoing consultation to offer any hope. My sympathy goes out to the council officers and Lollipop People and I sincerely hope that 3 months down the line I will not be reading about the first young child injured or killed as a result of these cuts but I fear that I will.

I have written to Mr Pickles this Week because as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government surely he has an interest in watching out for those communities that will be devestated by children being killed as a result of the Local Government actions. I have also written to Ms Eagle the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport to see if there will be a bit more support on that side of the House.

This is a quote from the PACT report that was mentioned a couple of weeks ago...

‘There was a strong feeling expressed by many participants in the PACTS

research that central government’s role should be to lead. Central

government has a privileged panorama view, and it needs to use this

position to co-ordinate and advise. Power can be decentralised, but

overall responsibility cannot be abdicated.’

I wholeheartedly agree with that last sentence. I just wish I could find someone who wanted to take overall responsibility before the children start being hurt.

An interesting development elsewhere is road safety - In Oxfordshire speed cameras that were switched off to save money last year are being switched back on because more people are having serious accidents and dying! Let's hope we don't reach the serious injuries and death stage in our campaign.