|
Week
commencing 15 July
RoSPA
calls for tougher drink driver laws
RoSPA
has backed the plea by a House of Lords committee to lower the drink-drive
limit and has called for extra efforts to beat the problem.
As well as a reduction in the limit from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml
of blood to 50mg, RoSPA has called for a series of measures including:
lower limits for young motorists; police powers to breath test anywhere
and any time; cheaper soft drinks; more imaginative sentencing,
with greater emphasis on rehabilitation schemes and retesting; and
more high-profile publicity campaigns to explain the reasons behind
the proposed changes.
"The Government’s road safety strategy estimates that
reducing the limit would save 50 lives and prevent 250 serious injuries
and 1,200 slight injuries a year," says Kevin Clinton,
RoSPA’s head of road safety. "A lower drink-drive limit
would send out an education message and would set the tone for no
drinking and driving. Such a move has been successful in other countries
and we cannot understand why the Government here has not supported
the case for a lower limit. We have recently seen a rise in the
drink-drive figures and action needs to be taken now before things
get worse."
More @ www.rospa.co.uk
Health ‘thumbs up’ for Plymouth home zone
A prospective
Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of Morice Town, the home zone pilot
in Plymouth, shows that both residents and health professionals think
that the home zone will bring significant health benefits.
The HIA was carried out before building took place and aimed to assess
the health impacts of the home zone on residents, businesses, and
health and social care service delivery. In general participants predicted
negative short-term impacts due to the building process and positive
long-term impacts once the home zone had been established. People
thought the home zone would lessen barriers in the community and generate
more community awareness and participation.
Two assessments were carried out in autumn 2001: one with health and
social care professionals and street representatives; the other with
children from the local primary school.
In addition, a toolkit for use in other home zones has been developed.
The toolkit ‘A guide to doing a prospective Health Impact Assessment
of a Home Zone’ and the Morice Town report ‘Morice Town
Home Zone: a prospective health impact assessment’ are both available
as pdfs at:
www.health-community-research-programme.bigstep.com/generic35.html.
Scottish
roads in line for funding boost
Scotland’s roads and public transport are in line for a massive
funding boost as they move higher up the Scottish Executive’s
agenda (Surveyor, 4 July). Sources say that public pressure for transport
improvements in Scotland has persuaded ministers to prioritise major
road and rail projects. These include upgrading the A8 and A80 strategic
routes to motorway standard, developing airport and rail links for
Glasgow and Edinburgh and measures to tackle congestion in Scotland’s
cities.
New
home zone website established
A
new website, www.homezoneschallenge.com,
has been established to give details of the Home Zone Challenge. The
technical and management consultancy, Babtie Group, has been contracted
to manage the implementation of the Home Zones Challenge, which has
a budget of £30m to fund 61 schemes across England. Part of
its role will be to disseminate information about the schemes via
the new website and through reports and conferences.
London
camera partnership undertakes ‘major works’
The
task of repositioning speed cameras in London to make them more
visible began in early July (Surveyor, 4 July). This follows what
has been described as a ‘major programme of work’ by the
London Safety Camera Partnership to meet the Government’s controversial
guidelines on speed cameras. A detailed review of all camera sites
in the Capital identified some that needed re-positioning –
a task that is likely to take six months.
|
