The Western Region Action Group |
February 2004 |
On the Easter Weekend, 9th & 10th April 2004, this infamous rally will take place at a new location near the Forest of Dean, as usual there will be Live Music and Real Ale’s under £2 a pint at the Slippitt Inn. Pre-Booked Tickets are £8 and a FREE pint for MAG members. On the Gate Price is £10. Rally Patches for the FIRST 150 Pre–Booked Only, No Fires, Pets & Cars by prior agreement only, For Rally Info contact Paul 01452 506941 or Sheila 01452 549833 or Gloucester_MAG@hotmail.com
The preceding item brings to mind that MAG are desperate for MARSHALS at events, so volunteer, the more of you there are the less each has to do, and in the case of the Duk Dik Rally all the local groups now have a list for you to put your name on, you don’t want Paul conscripting you do you.
MAG is supporting the TRF (Trail Riders Fellowship and its stance on green lane use. There is available an action pack for those who feel strongly about this issue and want to make their views known to their MPs and the Government departments involved in the consultation process. Check out the consultation document at: www.defra.gov.uk
This campaign is growing momentum and the on-line petition has already got 4,550 signatures. Also a few large haulage companies are interested in helping with one company already taking part. If you haven’t signed, do it now and check out their website: www.killspills.org.uk
There could be as many as 4000 “safety cameras” wrongly sited
according to the rules as laid down by the Department of Transport. The
rules state that they should cover locations with safety and speeding
problems, but the majority of them are on perfectly safe stretches of
carriageway.
Ministers have ordered all local authorities to review the
locations of their cameras; any cameras that are only raising cash are
to be removed. Out of the worst fifty blackspots only sixteen had
cameras. A spokesman for the Department of Transport admitted they did
not have a record of where any of the cameras were. The
Government‘s definition of a blackspot is ’four deaths or serious injuries per
kilometre in three years‘ is open to manipulation as at some locations
speed is not a factor because higher densities of traffic can push up
the chances of serious accidents occurring. A survey carried out showed
that there were 33 per cent more cameras on Britain’s 50 safest roads
than on the worst 50 roads. It has now been claimed that fines gathered
are funding a ’gravy train culture‘ among the police and bureaucrats,
instead of spending the funds on improvement to known accident black
spots.
Safety Camera Partnerships are now seen as a boom industry where
there is money to be made, and lavish expenditures can be made on
non-essential items, instead of road safety and crime reduction.
£30, that’s what it has cost a motorist for eating a sausage roll while at the wheel of his car. The unlucky driver was spotted by a patrol car, as he was about to pull out of a service station where he had purchase the sausage roll.
Should you inadvertently park more than 19 inches or 50cm from the kerb you could find yourself in trouble with the traffic wardens armed with rulers, and could be fined up to £100. The 19-inch rule was already in use in London and was intended to stop double parking, but is to be broadened to the rest of the country under
The same bill is to broaden the powers given to wardens to take over enforcement of regulations previously undertaken by the police. A spokesman for the DfT said the 50cm rule would apply to busy areas decided on after consultation with police and local people. These areas may include loading areas, hospitals and schools.
It is proposed that cameras are to be installed at box junctions in an effort to stop motorists from blocking these junctions, this is another item in the Traffic Management Bill, motorists caught blocking the junctions will face £100 fines, and can also be reported by Traffic Wardens.
After only 36 days lanes on the new M6 toll road had to be closed for repairs, speed limits were imposed when it became apparent that the carriageway surface was uneven.
The AA has condemned the idea of insurance discs as ’misguided and will do nothing to tackle the growing problem of uninsured drivers‘ ’Despite having compulsory tax discs, we still have 1.4 million untaxed cars on our roads.‘ With fines cheaper than insurance, is it not time for the Government to take a long hard look at the insurance industry and sort out the mal practice and price hike‘s that are rife within the industry. You only have to look at MAG‘s own research to know there is a lot wrong with the present system.
The Government are making plans to increase the fines dolled out to speeders according to their income. So this will mean if you are caught speeding you will be means tested as to your ability to pay, and how much they will fine you. Lord Falconer in a recent speech said: ’We need to keep improving our enforcement of penalties and especially fines, and indeed to ask whether fines should be linked more closely to income so that those who can pay more do pay more.‘
The Motorcycle Action Group accepts no responsibility for the content of this publication and the views expressed are not necessarily those of the Editor or MAG. Published by Demented Troll Publishing, Under The New Bridge, On The Bristol and Exeter Railway, in torrential rain and with a hole in my shoe.