Durham hosts first regional THINK! conference

A partnership comprising the Government Office North East, Durham County Council and LARSOA was the driving force behind the first THINK! conference to be held outside London.

The conference took place on 7 November at County Hall, Durham and took the theme of 'Partnerships'. The organisers were supported by Health Development Agency, Government News Network and Cleveland Safety Camera Partnership.

The idea for a regional conference was hatched at a meeting between Alan Kennedy, Durham County Council’s senior road safety officer, Maureen Laverick, Gateshead Council’s RSO and Penny Marshall from the Government Office North East. The three met to discuss road safety education, training and publicity in the region.

"We had the usual moans and groans about lack of co-ordination and being excluded from the London THINK! conference - simply because of the impracticality of travelling from the north east to London for an early morning start," Alan Kennedy explains. "So we agreed to host our own THINK! conference here in Durham."

Around 120 delegates - from local government, police, health authorities, Highways Agency, Age Concern, camera partnerships, the IAM, the private sector and the media – attended the event. Local authority attendees included chief executives, members and road safety professionals. Senior representatives from the region’s three police forces also attended.

There was a healthy debate about speed cameras with Paul Garvin, Durham’s chief constable, putting across his Force’s position and Mick Bennett from the Cleveland Camera Partnership outlining his organisation’s point of view. Although the views were opposing, the debate between the two was good natured and both parties presented a very good and robust case.

Other speakers included Tony Allsworth, the DfT’s head of road safety publicity, Dr Liz Towner who outlined how the health sector can contribute to casualty reduction and Chris Child from GNN.

The conference also featured a series of useful workshops. "One of the key points to emerge from the workshops was the overwhelming need for a new north east strategic group to co-ordinate road safety initiatives across the region," says Alan Kennedy.

"We will certainly be making the conference an annual event as feedback has been very positive," he added. "It also gave the north east’s road safety professionals the chance to 'blow our own trumpets' – to let those who can influence decisions and budgets know what we can do, and what we have achieved up here."