November 23^rd, marked the start of the annual Road Safety Week led by the charity Brake and supported by road safety professionals up and down the country, but is also a message for every driver, particularly with the Christmas festivities coming up.

The theme for this year’s campaign is ‘Not a drop, not a drag – stay sober, save lives’ which, as the title suggests, reiterates the perennial message about the dangers of drink driving but also emphasises the growing acceptance that there is also a problem with people who take drugs then get behind the wheel.

And the theme resonates particularly at this time of year when enforcement action by the police steps up a gear in the run up to Christmas and New Year celebrations; traditionally a time when more people might be tempted to drink and drive.

The message from Merseyside Police on this issue is clear; it is simply not worth the risk.

If you drive at twice the legal alcohol limit you are at least 30 times more likely to cause a road crash than a driver who hasn’t been drinking. Your reaction times are slower after just one drink. You can’t judge speed or distances accurately, you’re over-confident and you make bad decisions. It’s impossible to calculate exactly how much alcohol is in your system or whether you’re over the drink-drive limit.

And even if you’re lucky enough to not be involved in a collision when over the limit, you still run the risk of being stopped and arrested by the police. Being convicted of a drink-drive offence carries a mandatory, minimum 12-month ban and a substantial fine and gives you a criminal record. You also risk a prison sentence and a £5,000 fine.

Merseyside Police Inspector Kate Cunningham, Head of Wirral’s Roads Policing Unit, said: "Last year, during Wirral’s Christmas Drink-Drive Campaign, nearly 1,000 motorists were stopped and 44 drivers arrested. That’s 44 people too many – no-one should be taking a risk by drink driving, there’s always an alternative.

“This year we will be looking to stop even more motorists to check for drink drive offences and to get the message home that the risk of getting caught drink driving is high. I hope people will behave responsibly over the festive season and enjoy themselves without risking the safety of themselves or others."

Councillor Jean Quinn, Wirral’s Cabinet Member for Streetscene and Transport Services added: “Previous Christmas drink drive campaigns have resulted in a reduction in the number of collisions in Wirral in which drinking was a contributory factor and through this year’s campaign we will be looking to continue to build on this success. But just one collision caused by a drink driver is one that was avoidable.”

These are some details issued by Brake to coincide with Road Safety Week:-

The latest available casualty figures for the whole of the UK show that in 2007 nearly 16,000 people were involved in collisions caused by drink and drug-drivers. A shocking one in six deaths on our roads were caused by drivers over the legal alcohol limit and 478 people were killed by drivers over the drink-drive limit in 2007.

Though women were much less likely than men to cause drink drive crashes nearly a third of the casualties in drink drive crashes were women; often passengers in cars driven by young men.

Driving while under the influence of drugs is something which authorities are also committed to tackling. Though there aren’t any statistics currently available to measure the impact of drug-driving, research carried out by TRL, the transport research agency, suggests that around the same, if not higher, numbers of deaths may be due to illegal drug drivers.

Researchers found 17% of drivers who die in road crashes (almost one in five) have traces of illegal drugs in their system that may have affected their driving. TRL also found that almost 6% of drivers (one in 17 drivers) who die in road crashes have traces of medicinal drugs that may have affected their driving.

Wirral Council has been awarded additional funding of £807,140 by The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham MP to tackle worklessness and promote skills.

The Council will receive this extra funding through the Working Neighbourhoods Fund (WNF) which is designed to support local authorities in developing creative and innovative ways of tackling local worklessness

Wirral Council Leader, Cllr Steve Foulkes said: “This is tremendous news for Wirral.  We have already implemented a number of important initiatives to combat the effects of the recession with our initial allocation of funding such as the highly successful Wirral Apprentice programme, ReachOut and our Business Investment Grants. This additional funding will enable us to undertake additional activity to combat the recession and we will now assess how best to spend this most welcome extra resource.”

Funding is allocated for the period of 2008 to 2011 and allows local authorities to work with partners like Jobcentre Plus, the PCT and Social Landlords to tackle the complex barriers some people face in getting back to work, and working together to prevent negative social impacts and future problems of persistent worklessness.

Wirral Council was initially awarded £28,445,187 from the WNF over three years between 2008 and 2011 which has enabled the Authority to implement The Wirral Apprentice programme which has seen the creation of one hundred new apprentice positions in local companies with Wirral Council paying their salaries for the next 18 months.  The young people also have their training paid for them by the National Apprenticeship Service while they complete an Apprenticeship in their chosen field.

Reach Out is an innovative approach that engages workless households by taking the service to their home.  Reach Out guidance workers knock on doors, engage residents in the familiar surroundings of their own home and provide the support to help residents from Wirral’s most disadvantaged communities back into work.  Reach Out has achieved national recognition in light of its impressive job outcomes with over 2000 people helped into work since the programme’s start including an impressive 458 from April 2009.

Wirral Council has also supported SME businesses through the creation of the Business Investment Grant.  A grant of £4,000 to £20,000 is awarded to companies to help with a specific project which will enable them to safeguard and grow their business.  Companies to benefit from the Business Investment Grant so far include TTH Laundry Services, Let’s Go Publishing, Sign Lights and Wish Trac.

During 2008-2009, 80 companies were assisted in creating or safeguarding in excess of 900 jobs and securing over £17million private sector investment.   This was achieved in part through the services offered by Invest Wirral, Wirral Council’s business support team. 

To further help the Council also introduced the Wirral Business Forum – www.businesswirral.com – which includes free online networking for Wirral based businesses and now has over 700 business members.

Pensioners in Wirral and residents who receive Child Benefit may be entitled to more Housing or Council Tax Benefit when changes come into effect this month.

From 2 November, Council’s across the country will ignore up to £10,000 of capital held by any pensioners when processing applications for Housing or Council Tax Benefit. In addition to this, they will no longer consider Child Benefit as an income when people apply for assistance. This means that some residents, who did not previously qualify because of their income, could now be entitled to support.

Malcolm Flanagan, Head of Benefits, Revenues & Customer Services and Wirral Council explained: "We want to make sure that people in Wirral are receiving what they are entitled to and although each case is different, these changes could mean that some pensioners or people who receive child benefit may now be eligible for help with paying their rent or Council Tax. If anyone wants to check whether they may become entitled, they will need to complete an application form, providing details of their personal income, including any savings and capital, and their household’s income."

To find out more see the Council’s website at www.wirral.gov.uk <http://www.wirral.gov.uk/>  or for an application form visit any of the One Stop Shops or contact the Call Centre on 0151 606 2002.

Below is a video featuring the legacy former Bradford City Council Leader Eric Pickles and successive Tory administrations have left at Bradford.

Eric Pickles also known as the ‘Beast of Bradford’ is now an Tory MP in a safe seat and also Chair of the Conservative Party and is held in high regard by the Wirral Conservative Group with whom he regularly meets.

“Impressed with Eric Pickles” Cllr Ian Lewis May 28th 2009 via Twitter.

“Had the pleasure of meeting Eric Pickles” Cllr Dennis Knowles August 20th on his blog

With role models such as Eric Pickles can the Tories be really trusted with running Wirral Borough Council

More information at the North Of Westminster Blog