Advisors to WSCC Cabinet Member for H&T

Joy Cllr Joy Dennis, Cabinet Member for H&T, has signalled her focus on road safety by appointing Cllr Tom Richardson as Road Safety Advisor. This is very much to be welcomed because actual and perceived danger is a major inhibitor for people wanting to ride a bike. Cllr Richardson is very qualified for the role – he served for 15 years with the police service mostly as a specialist roads policing officer where he dealt with a huge variety of incidents.  And Cllr Dennis has renamed Cllr Sean McDonald's role as Cycling Champion to be Advisor for Active Travel. This brings consistency with the phrase Active Travel now being an all-encompassing term for human powered travel (mainly walking and cycling) and one that is consistent with the Government’s Active Travel England inspectorate and funding body.

Most of the collisions between people on bikes and those in motor vehicles occur at junctions and roundabouts where the infrastructure is designed for motor vehicles – as in “I’m sorry – I didn’t see you”. It is hoped that Cllr Richardson will recognise this and play a part in redesigning the infrastructure so that people on bikes and people in motor vehicles are kept well apart.