'Council's disregard for pedestrian safety' - Woodhams

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 24th May 2007

Tories carried out no safety checks on buses using pedestrianised areas

Following his recent questioning of West Berkshire Council's Tory Executive, Councillor Keith Woodhams has outlined his concerns about the lack of safety preparations and assessments carried out prior to the decision to let buses run through pedestrianised Northbrook Street and the Market Place.

Councillor Woodhams explained the background to his question:

"Local Lib Dems have long been concerned about the wisdom and safety of running buses through busy pedestrianised areas. It is obvious that the Tories are convinced that buses pose no hazard to shoppers in Newbury, so I submitted a question to Executive to find out what safety audits and assessments they carried out in Newbury town centre before they made their decision to allow the buses to return to Northbrook Street.

"I was appalled to discover that the safety assessments were left to the bus company to undertake and it was not at all clear that Ms Webster had even read them. The Council has a responsibility to West Berkshire residents and the Tories are clearly shirking their obligations where safety is concerned - they should be closely monitoring the situation and regularly meeting with representatives of the bus company to discuss what could, after all, be a life or death issue. Do we have to wait for somebody to be knocked over for this Administration to act?"