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CAMPAIGNS MANAGERS’ BRIEFING
I am going to remember March for the being as mad as a March Hare for the hair brained ideas coming out of Government and for March winds which I don’t think blow well for motorcycling! I will outline the activity taking place against the main themes of the Campaigns strategy for 2007.
Road Charging
The National Brum demo will provide the opportunity for us all to celebrate motorcycling and to voice our concerns at the Governments proposals to introduce road charging. The benefits of hanging our hats on this single issue is that it has captured the imagination of the general public who are equally disenchanted by this proposal. We should be able to tap into public sympathy and attract a lot of media attention.
Local Transport Planning
On the 1st March I went to Matlock Bath, famous as a motorcycle haunt, to attend a meeting at Derbyshire County Hall. The County Council were setting their road casualty reduction strategy for 2007.
Inevitably the focus was on motorcyclists who feature heavily in the casualty figures. However, through persuasive argument and some common sense the Council have come up with what I would describe as ‘motorcycle friendly’ policies which major on education, engineering by reviewing roadside furniture and signs and a sensible enforcement regime in line with the national motorcycle enforcement policy which MAG contributed to.
Credit where credit is due Derbyshire county Council has some excellent and professional initiatives which set the standard that others should follow. I have written to them congratulating them on their approach and sent a copy of the letter to MCN.
I am now being contacted regularly by Derbyshire and invited to attend their motorcycle forum which will help inform their policies.
Well done Derbyshire! We could do with some MAG representation in the County to provide a local perspective. Any volunteers?
Kill Spills
The event is now taking shape and full details are available on the Kill Spills website.
www.killspills.org.uk
Roads Policing
I can report on a very productive meeting with Deputy Chief Constable David Griffin of Humberside Police. Mr Griffin holds the Bike Safe and motorcycle portfolios for the Association of Chief Police Officers, (ACPO). He is a biker himself and all round good bloke.
I outlined MAG’s position of wanting more roads policing officers to detect and deter bad driving, mobile phone use, no insurance and the plethora of other bad driving habits that technology simply can not deal with.
He is sympathetic to our concerns and I am confident that we have a good ally in him. We talked about those Police Forces who are less than enthusiastic about adopting Bike Safe and the nationally agreed enforcement strategy and he is writing to those Forces to give them ‘encouragement’!
You may recall the ACPO motorcycle enforcement strategy was featured in a recent MCN.
It was refreshing to see the police adopting a common sense approach to things like dark visors and small number plates. Be warned though, don’t abuse it. Cops still have their discretion when dealing with matters. Overall though a positive result on this campaign to date.
Transport Select Committee - Review of Governments Motorcycle Strategy
This one has become a real belter and a hot bed of controversy.
Whilst on the face of it we can feel a warm glow that such things as better training for car drivers to be aware of bikers, bikes in bus lanes and recognition that motorcycling is mainstream there is the sting in the tail in the form of a desire to review power outputs and speeds of bikes.
This is misinformation at its worst and a good example of prejudice, where the more rabid elements of the road safety lobby have swayed the committee, who themselves appear to be biased against bikes. As soon as we know the starting point for this debate I will outline a campaign to ensure that these proposals are consigned to where they belong, the bin!
Off Road Vehicles (Registration) Bill
Another undesirable side effect to the transport select committee was the private members bill brought by Graham Stringer, ( a member of the committee) to introduce a scheme to require all off road vehicles to be subject to the same registration scheme as those used on the road.
The whole purpose was to tackle the problem of the illegal use of mini motos.
Unfortunately the bill will have no effect whatsoever on the issue it was meant to address but will have a disastrous effect on all forms of legitimate motorcycle sport. Meetings are taking place in which MAG are fully involved to deal with this.
Please see the Campaigns web site for all the information and what you can do to help head this one off.
Links with the Media
Following successful meetings with the EMAP empire things are just going from strength to strength. MCN are now contacting me on a weekly basis for comments on issues affecting motorcycling.
Mr Mutch is having letters printed in MCN and the two page feature in Bike magazine is reaping rewards in terms of positive feedback for MAG and declarations to join us.
On the back of the Bike article a TV producer, also a biker, read the article and had a meeting with Mr Mutch and myself to explore the possibility of doing a documentary on mainstream TV based on riders rights and MAG!
We have also been kept busy doing radio and TV interviews on the back of the announcement to review power and speed outputs of bikes. Suddenly people are asking MAG for their views. Our voice is being heard and it has authority and credibility.
DVLA issues
I had a positive meeting with DVLA to outline the concerns by many of the lost motorcycle entitlements. It would appear that it is not just bikers who have lost out, many others have also. Having outlined the problems they listened and promised to go away and think through what can be done and get back to me. I will report back on the progress.
Campaigns General
With thanks to the tremendous held from Sarah Gardener we now have a Campaigns database to complement the main website campaigns area.
The idea is to collate all campaign activity across the UK so that we can identify start times, progress and end points.
It will also enable us to put people in touch with colleagues working on similar campaigns across the UK, ensuring we identify good practise, build up a team approach and generally become more professional in how we progress campaigns.
Leading entry at the moment is East Yorkshires campaign to have tolls for motorcyclists waived on the Humber Bridge. It is being led by Wayne Rooney.
So, please let me know of what activity is taking place in your region so I can update the database.
Bike Safe Ride Free
David Short
Campaigns Manager
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