Pauline Latham OBE MP, Mid Derbyshire, has tried to make the roads near Morley Primary School safer after a parent in the constituency was badly injured driving in the area, because another driver was travelling too fast.
Pauline raised the crucial issue of road safety near the school in a bid to avoid any more injuries, or even a potential death. In Transport Questions in Westminster she asked:
“Before Christmas, a parent at Morley Primary School in my constituency was badly injured when driving in the school’s vicinity, because another car was going too fast, which is a regular occurrence. I have consistently requested that the county council change the speed limit and move the signs—only move them—but it consistently refuses to do so because, it says, nobody has been killed yet. I do not want a child, parent or anybody else to be killed. Is there any way that the Minister can change the criteria by which councils decide to change such speed limits”?
In response, Andrew Jones MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at Department for Transport, said:
“Local authorities already have the powers to introduce lower speed limits where they think it is appropriate. I think that that should apply especially around schools. The decision does not have to be a reactive one—waiting until something happens—and it is inappropriate to think in such a way. I suggest that I write to the Highways Authority in Derbyshire to highlight the powers that it already has. My right hon. Friend the Minister responsible for roads will visit my hon. Friend’s constituency in a fortnight or so to discuss roads, so perhaps she could pick the matter up with him then”.
Pauline has repeatedly contacted the county council in a bid to make roads safer, and has also arranged for Rt Hon John Hayes MP, the Minister of State at the Department for Transport, to come to Derby in a bid to improve safety in the constituency.