Stockport council slammed over 'irresponsible' school road safety campaign

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Road safety campaigners have slammed ‘irresponsible’ town hall bosses for promoting 30mph speed limits near schools. Stockport council is currently putting up speed awareness signs close to schools as part of a Greater Manchester-wide campaign.

Banners will also be placed on railings next to school entrances. The first signs were installed outside Cheadle Heath Primary School and the roll out is set to continue across the borough over the next 18 months.The authority has plans to introduce 20mph limits on residential roads but says this will take time, and the current campaign is an ‘appropriate activity’, to 'immediately encouraging safer driving practices’. READ MORE : Schools to trial temporary road closures around start and finish times this summer But it has been sharply criticised by ‘20s Plenty’ campaigners, who say it is compromising on child safety.

Rod King MBE, founder of 20’s Plenty for Us - a 'not for profit’ organisation of nearly 600 local groups - was scathing in his response.

He said: “At a time when the United Nations and World Health Organisation are calling for a maximum limit of 20mph anywhere that motors share roads with people walking or cycling it seems irresponsible that the council should be implying that 30mph is an acceptable speed in the presence of children walking and cycling. "It shows the chasm between what is best practice and the compromises which Stockport MBC appears to make to child safety.