Personally Speaking: ‘We can't afford to wait for an incident before we act on road safety’
- 47 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Parliament is in recess and so I get to spend even more time back home in Newcastle-under-Lyme. As it does each year, Recess gives me the opportunity to visit local businesses, meet with community groups and, most importantly, speak to more residents about the issues that matter to you.
It also comes at an important moment nationally – with a new Prime Minister and a new chapter beginning for our country. It’s a chapter that brings a renewed focus and energy to the challenges facing communities like ours, and a welcome determination to back places like Newcastle-under-Lyme.
For me, this moment means a further chance to make the strongest possible case for the investment, infrastructure, and opportunities our area needs, and to keep the priorities of local people in every conversation and decision taken in Westminster.
One of the very first things I’ll be doing when I return to Parliament in September is introducing my School Road Safety Bill, which would seek to require local authorities to prepare and publish a road safety plan for each and every school in their area – acknowledging the concerns and challenges that parents and teachers at those individual schools will be all too aware of, but which can too often be missed by a generalised approach.
This follows a number of concerns raised by parents, teachers and residents across Newcastle-under-Lyme, including a campaign led by parents at Meadows Primary School in Madeley, after a serious collision outside the school near the end of last year, when a parent was knocked down while crossing, even with the assistance of the school's crossing patrol.
Their campaign, and the petition I subsequently brought forward, calling on Staffordshire County Council to take action and develop a dedicated road safety plan for each school across our county, have led me to bring this Bill before Parliament.
We can’t wait for another serious incident before acting. Children’s safety must be at the heart of how we manage the road infrastructure around our schools.
Across Newcastle-under-Lyme, parents have contacted me with similar concerns about dangerous crossings, speeding vehicles, poor visibility and near-misses. That’s why I launched my petition to the County Council.
The petition has secured further consideration of safety improvements around Meadows Primary School – which is welcome progress – but it can’t be the end of the conversation.
Every school is different, and every community faces different challenges. And recognising those differences is so important if we want to ensure every child has the same right to arrive at school safely.
The concerns raised by parents at Meadows Primary and at schools across our patch are part of a wider point: residents shouldn’t have to campaign tirelessly before safety concerns are taken seriously. Local people know where problems exist, and their voices deserve to be heard. The same determination has been shown by residents who have campaigned for years for improvements to the A500 Audley slip road.
By working with the community, gathering evidence, launching petitions and pressing those responsible for action, we have seen tangible progress.
The progress made by National Highways at the A500 is welcome – with improved signage to be permanently installed – but we are still waiting for decisive action from Staffordshire County Council on the surrounding approach roads. It shouldn’t take years of campaigning to address well-known safety concerns, and residents deserve greater urgency when problem-areas have already been clearly identified like this.
That’s exactly why we need a more proactive approach to road safety, whether around our schools or elsewhere on our roads.
The issues raised by residents on the school run and at the Audley slip road are a keen reminder that our systems should be designed to understand and respond to the experiences of local people. People who live with the consequences every day should help shape the decisions and solutions devised by local authorities and in Westminster.
The summer recess gives me the chance to continue meeting with residents across Newcastle-under-Lyme and hearing those issues, priorities and concerns that matter most. And when Parliament resumes in September, I’ll take those Newcastle-under-Lyme voices with me – as I do every week – and continue to make the case for the action our communities need, beginning with my School Road Safety Bill.
