Fair deal for motorists is on Conservatives' agenda
DERBY Conservatives have revealed their manifesto ahead of the May local elections in which they say they will "redress the balance" towards a fair deal for motorists.
The city's Tories say they feel drivers have been penalised under the current Liberal Democrat administration, which has introduced bus lanes and been vocal about its support for cycle lanes.
Councillor Harvey Jennings, Conservative group leader in Derby, said he felt it was time for more attention to be paid to motorists.
"In recent years everything has been against the car – we even had talk of congestion charging, which we are completely against.
"People have a car for a reason, they have a family they need to transport and the car can be the cheapest way of doing that for some, they may need it for work reasons. We can't drive motorists off the road."
The group has made a series of pledges aimed at the motorist, including reviewing the way the city's roads are being repaired to reduce potholes, withdrawing funding for speed cameras and investing it in other road safety measures, reviewing traffic flows to keep cars moving, scrapping the Ked-leston Road bus lane and reviewing the lane in Duffield Road.
Other road-related promises include improving road signage in the city, including at key entrances to Derby.
Deputy group leader Matthew Holmes said: "We need to redress the balance instead of constantly bashing the car driver."
But there has already been some concern about the headline-grabbing move to scrap funding for speed cameras.
The Derby and Derbyshire Road Safety Partnership, to which the money goes, said cameras were having a positive effect on safety and that accident levels would increase without them.
Mr Jennings said he still believed speed cameras were now outdated and it was time to look at new ways of improving road safety.
It is not the only pledge within the manifesto aimed at winning votes.
The Tories would also make use of a tax freeze scheme if the national Conservatives win the general election.
When David Cameron, the Tory leader, visited Derbyshire ahead of the county council elections last year, he promised councils which signed up to a tax freeze would get funding from central Government to help them provide services which would be equivalent to a 2.5% tax rise.
The money would come from reducing marketing and advertising expenditure in Whitehall.
Mr Jennings said he would sign Derby up to the scheme to promise a council tax freeze for two years.
He added: "We would also want to have a referendum on what people felt the council tax should be once that freeze was over."
The local election will take place in Derby on May 6 and one seat out of every three in each of the 17 city wards will be up for grabs.
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by Martin, Weston
Tuesday, March 09 2010, 3:52PM
“Tom, why do you assume that a 7 minute bus journey is the answer to every car drivers problems
Do you honestly think that even half of those people leaving Allestree/Mickleover in a morning are heading for a destination within walking distance of the city centre or somewhere en-route. If so they'd have caught the BUS!!
Buses are great if they go where you want when you want them to. For everyone else theres the car
Wake up and understand the problem, perhaps then you'll realise how difficult it is going to be to find a solution”
by Martin, Weston
Tuesday, March 09 2010, 3:46PM
“Tom, why do you assume that a 7 minute bus journey is the answer to every car drivers problems
Do you honestly think that even half of those people leaving Allestree/Mickleover in a morning are heading for a destination within walking distance of the city centre or somewhere en-route. If so they'd have caught the BUS!!
Buses are great if they go where you want when you want them to. For everyone else theres the car
Wake up and understand the problem, perhaps then you'll realise how difficult it is going to be to find a solution”
by Tom, Derby
Tuesday, March 09 2010, 3:32PM
“Most people will find any excuse they can to use their car for work, eg. "I have an asthmatic dog who may need to be taken to the vets at any time" or "I have a very rare condition that means the material they use to line the seats on buses brings me out in a severe rash", leaving the planners who are paid to reduce congestion with little choice but to make it more expensive and nearly impossible to use a car.
Public transport is not as unreliable as people like to pretend it is in order to convince themselves driving is the right thing to do. Most local areas get buses at least every 15 minutes into the centre, and if a bus is a few minutes late, so what? You'd only get stuck in traffic in your car too.
Richard, Heanor, you are an example of someone that possibly needs a car to get to work given your journey and shift times. Does it not annoy you when you get stuck in long tail backs caused mainly by '3 mile commuters'. What gets me is the queues caused by people from Allestree/ Mickleover etc where they get a bus every 7 minutes.”
by Martin, Weston
Tuesday, March 09 2010, 3:26PM
“I'd second most of what burtonftw says
What those of you who would rather we lived in the Dark Ages need to realise is that as urban areas grow (at least up until now) they become less reliant upon a single 'centre'
Modern Derby is about so much more than the city centre in terms of where people need to get to within the city boundaries & this growth has been underpinned by private transport. Public transport has not (for whatever reason) adapted to this growth so it only suits a (vocal) proportion of those that travel
Derby is not unique and so much of the way we live our modern lives is only made possible through private transport
My wife works in Leicester (on the outskirts near M1 J21). Can any genius tell me how she should commute without a car? Let me remind you we have 1 bus an hour to Derby for starters and the last return bus from the city is at 5:20. She works until 5:30 & is 40 miles away from the city
Would the do-gooders say that she should give up her job and move to one in Derby city centre? Nice idea if there was a glimmer of a chance of that happening but we live in a world where economic factors mean that there isn't a similar job in Derby - even if there was a vacancy
What we need is a fairly balanced transport system which doesn't seek to penalise the car owner simply because they tend to be able to afford it most”
by Richard, Heanor
Tuesday, March 09 2010, 3:03PM
“public transport, try working shifts and getting a bus at 23.00 hrs to go home or getting to work for 06.00 hrs. If you are late you will in no doubt put your job at risk. I would need two buses and a good hour to do a twenty minute journey. All the planning since the 1970's has been around the use of the car, big sprawling estates with no shops, out of town shopping areas. As for people ''don't need cars'' try shopping and using public transport with your frozen shopping, hard enough for two never mind the average family of 2.2 or has it gone up? My nearest bus stop is a 10minute brisk walk, car wins every time”