Mark Eastwood MP: ​Fighting for safer roads in Dewsbury and Mirfield

Mark Eastwood MP writes: We all know the areas that are the speeding hotspots – places like Leeds Road in Dewsbury and Huddersfield Road in Shelley – are well known to not only local people, but also to the police and local authority, but current legislation means that action that can be taken is limited.

Local councillors are able to provide devices that flash drivers’ speeds up as a warning. These can be effective and make drivers more aware of their speeds in the short term, but they are only temporary, and problem drivers often ignore these and speed anyway.

After meeting with pupils from Boothroyd Academy and St Paulinus Catholic Primary earlier this year I agreed to be a Walking Advocate for the charity Living Streets – supporting safer streets for children to walk to school and promoting their WOW campaign, which encourages children to walk to school all year round with incentives and rewards. The programme increases the rates of children walking to school by over 20 per cent, and we know that walking, scooting or cycling to school promotes not only less road congestion but also an active lifestyle for children and families. Whenever I visit schools, children and their parents tell me that they worry about cars – that they go too fast or park irresponsibly making crossing the road more dangerous – and that this is a big part of their reluctance to walk.

I know how important it is to get something done about this issue, and that’s why I regularly bring up road safety in Dewsbury and Mirfield in Parliament. Earlier this month I received a commitment from the Roads Minister to come to our area and meet with road safety campaigners and local people so that they can put their concerns to him directly.

I’m also taking things further, and introducing a bill to Parliament which could give local people greater power over getting speed cameras installed on roads that are notorious for speeding. The current guidance recommends that for a camera to be installed there should be criteria met, such as evidence that at least 20 per cent of drivers regularly exceed the speed limit and, worryingly, that there needs to be evidence of multiple accidents with serious injuries and even deaths having occurred in the last three years.

This bar is too high and we need to give local people the power to slow down speeding traffic before casualties and fatalities happen. Our communities know where the problems are and being able to use evidence like near misses, more minor incidents and traffic surveys will give people more control over where they live.

Last year, the highest number of road casualties since 2008 were recorded in Kirklees, with dozens of children amongst those injured either as a passenger in a car or as a pedestrian or cyclist. That number must come down, and we need to take serious action to achieve it.

I’m always keen to hear what people have to say on this issue, or on any other concern you have about our local area. My team and I are here to help, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch by email on [email protected] or by telephone on 01924 939 007.

Thank you for reading.