www.mcia.co.uk/_Attachments/173_101CMS.pdfIndustry 'Exasperated' With Government Inaction As Bikesafe Funding Is Announced
The Motor Cycle Industry Association MCI has today announced that it will be funding the administration costs of the national motorcycle safety programme 'Bikesafe' until the end of the financial year in April 2005. The industry grant amounts to a total of £37,500.
Bikesafe is a police led scheme which was piloted in 1996 and has been running in a number of force areas since then. Bikesafe combines rider assessment, road safety discussion and assisted motorcycleriding to identify areas where riders could benefit from advanced motorcycle training. Bikesafe acts as a conduit to more established training programmes and is very popular among riders of all kinds. Increasing interest from riders and the spread of the programme to encompass the majority of the UK led to the launch of a national Bikesafe initiative at MCI's road safety conference in May 2004.
The programme is currently co-ordinated nationally by North Wales police and officers around the country often give up free time to ensure the scheme's success. As well as being popular among riders, Bikesafe can claim success in cutting casualty numbers. Bikesafe London is one of the most popular in the country and is heavily oversubscribed. MCI believes that the programme has helped towards the 8% decrease in motorcycle casualties in London in 2003.
Resources for Bikesafe have always been tight, with many programmes relying on the good will of chiefpolice officers and individual police motorcyclists. As a result, earlier this year, Bikesafe, with the support of MCI applied for proper year-to-year funding from the network of safety camera partnerships. This was refused due to the current rules surrounding how revenue raised from speed cameras can be used. Questions in Parliament exposed unwillingness by Government to change the rules so that road safety programmes with a proven track record, such as Bikesafe, could benefit from camera cash.
Faced with the prospect of funds running out for the national scheme, MCI has stepped in to fund the scheme with a one-off grant.
MCI feels that the Bikesafe funding issue has exposed a lack of coherent thinking by Government with regard to motorcycle safety and highlighted the vexed issue of the role of speed cameras.
Craig Carey-Clinch, MCI Director of Public Affairs said; 'The idea of a national road safety scheme, which is police run, has public support and a proven track record, effectively going bust a few months after its launch is absurd. Government seems to expect that a scheme it has already indicated it supports, can run on good will, private sector cash and fresh air and in the process reduce the number of motorcycle accidents about which it claims to have so much concern.
'It is quite clear that if we're to see a reduction in motorcycle accidents Bikesafe needs sustainable levelsof long-term funding, which it can only really get from Government sources. This will help the programme develop and reach more riders who are at risk.
'The refusal of Ministers to consider speed camera funding is short sighted and exasperating to say the least. Speed cameras are so unpopular partly because there is a public perception that cash for cameras disappears into the black hole of safety camera partnerships never to be seen again. Public acceptability of speed cameras would improve if some of the revenue raised was ploughed back into a scheme which the public can see helps to improve road safety in an area of particular public concern -motorcycle accidents.'The rules need changing and Government needs to release funds - they've done it for other road safety programmes, they can do it for Bikesafe -- otherwise Ministerial commitments to improving ridersafety will start to look a little hollow.'
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