‘Safe’ is a feeling as well as a statistic
Cllr Sue Burfoot on Smedley Street
At the Highways, Assets and Transport Cabinet meeting held on the 17th June, a request from Lib Dem Cllr Sue Burfoot to introduce traffic calming measures in Smedley Street, Matlock was refused. Despite a petition signed by 50 local residents requesting these measures, the Cabinet Member for Highways, newly appointed Cllr Kewal Singh Athwal, has agreed with the officer report and recommended the refusal of the request on the grounds that there have been insufficient 'personal injury collisions' to warrant introducing measures to slow down the traffic. It seems that the way that road safety is looked at by the County Council is to regard it in cost benefit terms and (apparently) 3 people have to be hurt within 3 years before even the most basic traffic calming scheme can be funded.
Commenting on this decision Cllr Sue Burfoot said, "This reactive approach seems to be totally at odds with how safety is approached in any other sphere of life. No factory waits for an accident to happen before they put put a warning sign or install a safety cut out on a piece of machinery.
How is this approach consistent with encouraging people to leave their cars at home and walk or cycle more? People need to feel it is safe to cross Smedley Street on foot. The presence of some lowered kerbs and 'textured paving slabs' (bumpy paving) cannot make you FEEL safe enough to cross the road".
"The existing protocol used by DCC is outdated and should be reviewed, in the light of environmental awareness, the Stockholm Declaration and the UN Assembly agreement.
We must change the present mindset from favouring the motorist to protecting all road users".
It will not help us address the climate emergency if people are too scared to walk and so they feel they have to drive.