Press Release
5th November 2002
McNeil Welcomes Funding for
Road Safety Schemes
MSP for Greenock & Inverclyde,
Duncan McNeil, has welcomed funding for pilot schemes to teach
Inverclyde’s young children road safety.
Inverclyde is one of 3 Councils which will receive additional funding specifically for child pedestrian training schemes.
Mr McNeil said:
"Improving road safety – especially for younger children on their way to and from school – has been as issue on which I have been campaigning for a number of years.
"It is good to see that progress is being made in cutting the number of Scottish children killed or seriously injured on our roads – by 2001, fatal and serious child casualties were down over a third on mid ‘90s levels. But we need to make further progress if we are to hit our target of halving the number of child road deaths and serious injuries by 2010.
"Effective and practical training is vital to ensure that children know how to use roads safely. It is a sad fact that kids from less well off areas are most at risk and these schemes will help to ensure that, no matter where they live, our children stay safe on the roads."
The child pedestrian training schemes involve appointing local co-ordinators, who will work alongside trained volunteers, local authorities and road safety units to set up and run schemes in a number of selected schools. The schemes aim to teach five and six-year-olds practical road safety skills. The Executive will fund individual schemes for their first three years.
The schemes will be run in line with Kerbcraft child pedestrian training model which developed from work carried out in the Drumchapel area of Glasgow.
The Scottish Executive announced on 4th
September 2001 that it was to provide funding totalling £810,000
for a programme of pilot child pedestrian training schemes to be
set up and run by selected local authorities in Scotland.
ENDS
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