Police failing to enforce speed limits

Following a Freedom of Information request I submitted to the PSNI asking for the number of Fixed Penalties for speeding in many of the roads connecting the Malone Road to the Lisburn Road, it was revealed that no Fixed Penalties have been issued in the past three years on any of the streets in question for speeding offenses.

Many of the streets which I enquired about are notorious “rat runs” and are being used by many drivers to beat the traffic on the arterial routes. I have been inundated with traffic queries recently and I was shocked to find out that not one single penalty notice has been issued in the areas I enquired about, despite the fact that they are known to be areas in which speeding is a problem.

To compound the problem a PSNI station is located at the bottom of two of the streets which I asked about, Adelaide Park and Cranmore Park, it would make you wonder if the police are simply ignoring the issue.

I am currently advocating a reduction in the speed limit in urban residential areas from 30mph to 20mph which will require PSNI co-operation if they are serious about making our streets a safer place for all. I am calling on the PSNI to demonstrate their commitment to preventative road strategies, and to work to eradicate dangerous driving.

DRD Minister not doing enough to get us out of our cars

Today I have been asking Minister Conor Murphy why he is failing to get people out of their cars and into other more sustainable forms of transport.

The number of single occupancy journeys by car in Belfast increased by 13 million between 2006 and 2008. The Minister has also reported an increase, according to the most recent figures produced in 2007, of around 19% in journey times on key transport corridors.

Figures have also shown that the number of people opting to travel by bus has slightly decreased since 2007, from 36.2 million to 35.8 million in 2008.

The Minister is failing to get people out of their cars and as a consequence, our roads infrastructure and environment are under considerable pressure. These figures clearly show that we need to invest further in public transport to provide incentive to coax people out of their cars.

If we are serious about reducing the volume of traffic on our roads we must seriously look at how we can achieve reduced rates of car uptake and we can only achieve this by making public transport an attractive alternative to those who are car dependent.

I am calling on the Minister to demonstrate his commitment to long term investment for sustainable transport models and to provide leadership in highlighting the importance of this issue.

Proposals for Belfast Cycle Scheme to be brought forward

I attended the Belfast Cycle City: Visions for the Future Conference last night.

Over 200 people turned up to support greater investment in and promotion of cycling in the city. Roads Minister, Conor Murphy told us that the Department of Regional Development, Belfast City Council and the Strategic Investment Board are to bring forward proposals for a Belfast Cycle Scheme like that launched in Dublin last year. This is welcome news and will have my full support and that of the SDLP group on Belfast City Council.

I hope the Department of Health will also back any initiatives financially which are proven to have a positive impact in the reduction of major public health threats likes obesity.

I have been campaigning with colleagues in the SDLP in the Assembly and on Belfast City Council on this issue for some time.

The Dublin Scheme has surpassed all expectations. Over on million journeys will have been completed by this summer and the City authorities are now having to purchase more bikes to keep up with demand.

There is also good evidence that people are using the bikes to finish of journeys which involve buses or trains.

We need the Department of Health here to get behind proposals that will keep people out of doctors surgeries and hospital. The obesity levels are lower in cities where people cycle more.  Here is great opportunity to put our money where our mouth is an invest in public health and true sustainability.

Minister must explain how he will pay for water and sewage investments

Today I have welcomed ; the completion of the Belfast Sewers Project and called on Minister Conor Murphy to spell out how he proposes to fund water and sewage investment here in the future.

This project has caused considerable disruption throughout the city over the past five years and we hope the new sewers will transform the quality of life of many across Belfast who have had to live and work in fear of flooding.

 Many in communities like the Lower Ormeau will hope sewage will never again run along their streets.

 Most of the major projects which are now being completed were commissioned before the DUP/Sinn Féin coalition came to power.

The reason we have such an unacceptable funding model and the threat of water charges hanging over this region is because of the DUP and Sinn Féin’s inability to provide devolved government during the 2003 – 2007 period. This allowed direct rule Ministers to change the RRI and propose the entirely unacceptable introduction of water charges.

Many of us remain concerned with the poor water and sewage infrastructure, the unacceptably high levels of leakage and the continuing concerns about pollution of our major waterways. 

The Minister for Regional Development and Northern Ireland Water are in perpetual crisis and stasis, unable to provide the leadership which is so badly needed.

Will any MLA join me on the bike during Bike Week and save serious money?

As many regular visitors to O’Conall Street will know I commute to Stormont from the bottom of the Lisburn Road on a bike purchased tax free a couple of years ago through the ride to work scheme.

It’s a round trip of 18 miles and takes me just over 40 min each way.  According to the cycle calculator on the Bike Week website this daily exercise save me £7.20 every day!

Based on two days a week on the bike to Parliament building since I joined the Assembly on Jan 21st and not taking into account all the cycling I do around the city and constituency, I have already saved £250!

My ride to work also burns up at tidy 810 calories a day.

So here is my challenge to any MLA who lives within 10 miles of Parliament Buildings.

Join me for on your bike commuting to Stormont for just one day during bike to work week (June 19 – 27) and set a good example for all.

New cycle racks for Belfast City Centre great news

The announcement of 50 new bike racks for Belfast City Centre is great news and long overdue. On my way up to Parliament Buildings this morning from the BBC, I noticed a good number of cyclists coming in from East Belfast. The new racks are being funded by my leader and Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie.

I may be the only MLA to use a bike regularly but am meeting more a more business people and public servants – many in senior positions – who are now using bike regularly. My kids school has also had to build a new bike shed to accommodate extra demand.

Biking is a great way to stay healthy, reduce your carbon footprint and enjoy the city. That’s one of the reasons I am leading the campaign for the reduction of the speed limit on all residential urban streets to 20mph.

A new day but not a new dawn

They talked hard into the night but the US could only get a framework for agreement with China and the other big polluters. We don’t know yet who was pushing for more but if president Obama’s public remarks are anything to go by it appears he was ready to take the United States into uncharted territory in order to get a meaningful agreement.

Sir David King, the climate guru, has just said it is as good as we could have hoped for. He argues that the momentum is up and that the EU, US and other ‘progressive states’ should focus on shifting the positions of India and China who appear to have been the major obstacles to agreement.

There are some powers in the compromise on the table according to reports but it is well short of where we should be. 

The five-nation deal promises to deliver $30bn (£18.5bn) of aid for developing nations over the next three years, and outlined a goal of providing $100bn a year by 2020 to help poor countries cope with the impacts of climate change.

President Obama said the US, China, Brazil, India and South Africa had “agreed to set a mitigation target to limit warming to no more than 2C and, importantly, to take action to meet this objective”.

There is an excellent rolling blog by Richard Black on the BBC website tracking the twists and turns through the night.  However top blogger by unanimous verdict goes to AFP’s Stephen Collison who has captured the emotion and events with wit.

Chaos and farce reigned at the birth of a climate accord agreed by a clique of leaders, with statesmen going missing, critics crying foul and hacks stampeding on vain hunts for Barack Obama.

Fatigue fermented a feverish cocktail of human emotion overnight Friday as the US president claimed to have staved off a default in the dying hours of global warming talks in Copenhagen.

But small nations like Cuba and Nicaragua erupted in fury at being snubbed in a game of big power diplomatic chess also involving developing giants Brazil, China and India.

Claiming a “meaningful” deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions, Obama fired up carbon-belching Air Force One and raced back from the global warming summit to outrun a storm ironically tipped to dump a foot of snow on Washington.Related article: Environmental groups denounce ‘abject failure’

It was a stunning turnaround, as earlier, as the summit went into extra time, the whole project was on the verge of collapse, US officials said.

Crunch time at Copenhagen

Its crunch time at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen. 

The BBC reports that US President Barack Obama has warned world leaders that time is running out to strike a deal at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen.

President Obama told delegates that the international community’s ability to take collective action was in doubt.

But neither the US, the EU or China offered anything new as fears grew that a deal may be slipping away.

The UN has now asked world leaders to plan for staying overnight in Copenhagen because of the deadlock.

Friday was scheduled to be the last day of the conference, but a draft political agreement drawn up by a small group of countries was rejected during overnight discussions.

And the EU did not raise its offer on cutting emissions from 20% to 30%, as some observers had anticipated.

Addressing the summit on Friday, President Obama said: “While the science of climate change is not in doubt, I think our ability to take collective action is in doubt right now, and it hangs in the balance.”

‘Tear down the Wall and tackle climate change..’ Gorbi the eco-warrior

It is twenty years since the Berlin Wall fell.

There will be a big formal commemoration in the German Capital later. Today, writing in the London Times, Mikhail Gorbachev, reminds us all that the road to the end of the Cold War was certainly not easy, or universally welcomed at the time, but it is for just this reason that its lessons remain relevant. In the 1980s the world was at an historic crossroad. The arms race had created an explosive situation. Nuclear deterrents could have failed at any moment. We were heading for disaster, spending billions on an arms race, rather than investing in creativity and people.

He then goes on to make the following call:

Today another planetary threat has emerged. The climate crisis is the new wall that divides us from our future, and today’s leaders are vastly underestimating the urgency, and potentially catastrophic scale, of the emergency….

….Like 20 years ago, we face a threat to global security and our very future existence that no one nation can deal with alone. And, again, it is the people who are calling for change. Just as the German people declared their will for unity, world citizens are today demanding that action is taken to tackle climate change and redress the deep injustices that surround it. Twenty years ago key world leaders demonstrated resolve, faced up to opposition and immense pressure, and the Wall came down. It remains to be seen whether today’s leaders will do the same.

Addressing climate change demands a paradigm shift on a scale akin to that required to end the Cold War. But we need a “circuit-breaker” to escape from the business-as-usual that currently dominates the political agenda. It was the transformation brought about by perestroika and glasnost that provided the quantum leap for freedom for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and opened the way for the democratic revolution that saved history. Climate change is complex and closely entwined with a host of other challenges, but a similar breakthrough in our values and priorities is needed.

Time for 20mph zones?

Ask anyone living in an urban area and they will be worried about traffic speeding through residential areas.

Speed bumps, chicanes and cameras have all been deployed to keep motorists at 30mph in built up areas yet the simple fact is that you still stand a one in five chance of being killed if  hit by a vehicles travelling 30mph.  Drop the speed of impact to 20mph and the chances of surviving skyrocket (only one in forty chance of being killed).

A couple of years ago Bereaved families in the North launched a campaign for Northern Ireland drivers to slow down.

Gareth Ellesmere was just 13 when he was knocked down and killed by a bus while crossing a road in Newtownards, County Down, in February. Lauren Finlay was killed aged 15 by a lorry while trying to cross a dual carriageway near her home after a school trip in 2005. Today, Gareth and Lauren’s families are attending the Belfast launch of National Road Safety Week where road safety charity Brake will unveil the Northern Ireland results of its UK-wide survey of school children. Almost three-quarters (72%) of Northern Ireland children said drivers should slow down near their homes and schools.

I know the issue has also been picked up by some local groups including the Green Party at Queens. Maybe it has already been discussed by the Assembly and maybe there are trial areas here in NI which I am unaware of but it strikes me that a serious debate about dropping the speed limit to 20mph in residential areas would be a good idea.