EU Written Declaration on HGVs - PLEASE SUPPORT

ONE HERE> Dear Mr [Fuego],

Thank you for contacting Mr Helmer regarding the EP Written Declaration
81 on improving road safety.

I can confirm that Mr Helmer will be signing Written Declaration 81, in
a bid to improve road safety.

Kind regards

Lydia Smith
Assistant to
Roger Helmer MEP

NOT ONE HERE>
Thank you for your message about Heavy Goods Vehicles and their inability
properly to detect other traffic such as cyclists. This would seem to lead
to a high proportion of accidents and fatalities which reliable sources
place at 14% of fatal collisions. It is a problem that needs to be resolved
and the technology is available.

However, I do not sign Written Declarations because they call on the
Commission to take action. This is totally unsatisfactory for me ,and
indeed most UKIP MEPs, because the Commission has not been elected by
anyone. We prefer all legislation to arise from elected Members of
Parliament because being elected means that they are accountable to the
people. The whole thrust of UKIP's policy is to remove the UK from the EU
so that our laws are made where they should be made, at Westminster. Our
MPs are much closer to the people than MEPs because we cover such a wide
area and because we have limited access to the Commission.

Since we are in the EU our own Government has given up and we now have 75%
of our laws forced on us by the EU. Out of the EU we could press our MPs to
introduce the necessary legislation for our Truck Drivers. Since good ideas
always spread, then this will find its way across Europe and blind spot
fatalities would reduce. Please think about the vast wealth of technical
innovations which have arisen over the centuries and which passed across
political boundaries without there being any kind of EU or Commission
involved.

In fact, the EU stands in the way of progress because all such developments
generated by the EU are immediately submerged in so much bureaucracy and red
tape as to reduce their effectiveness.

Please support UKIP in trying to restore proper accountability to
Westminster.

Yours sincerely

Derek Clark MEP

sent the email to eight and in half an hour four had replied to say they'd already done it. (half of) my MEPs are awesome.

Positive replies from Mary Honeyball, Claude Moraes, Jean Lambert, Dr Tannock, Marina Yannakoudakis and Syed Kamall. Good to see the about turn of Marina Yannakoudakis since December.. Obviously Gerard Batten refused. I've got a UKIP candidate for a neighbour!
I sincerely hope no one came across the truly psychotic ‘Haulage Ltd’ HGV driver in the environs of Euston Road today. Have emailed Roadsafe and the company.

Dr Tannock has singed the WD

kind regards
James Warwick
Office of Dr. Charles Tannock MEP
London Region-Conservative
UK Conservative Foreign Affairs Spokesman
ECR Group Coordinator on Foreign Affairs Committee
Vice-Chairman, EP Delegation to NATO Parliamentary Assembly

hmm, the doctor might be an arsonist..

1 reply
7 the go..

another one knocked off that list, Richard Ashworth

Dear Mr Jaitch,

Thank you for your email regarding Written Declaration 81. Mr Ashworth read your email with great interest and asked me to reply on his behalf.

As I am sure you know, Heavy Goods Vehicles account for only 4% of the vehicles on the EU's roads, but are involved in 14% of the collisions. Richard finds this utterly unacceptable, particularly as there are numerous devices to combat a HGV's 'blind spot', and these solutions are increasingly affordable. Richard has passed your comments along to Jacqueline Foster MEP, the Conservative spokesman for Transport in the European Parliament, for her reference.

I can confirm that Richard has signed Written Declaration 81 and is urging his Conservative colleagues to do the same.

I hope that this answers your questions, thank you again for contacting Mr Ashworth.

Kind regards,

Emma Gurrey
Assistant to Richard Ashworth MEP

received positive replies from:-

Jean Lambert MEP
Green Party Member of the European Parliament for London

Syed Kamall
Conservative MEP for London

Marina Yannakoudakis MEP
Conservative Party / Brussels Office / European Parliament

the usual nonsense from Gerard Batten UKIP

***I always vote against EU legislation, believing that the governance of countries should be by their accountable and directly elected governments. It would therefore be inconsistent to sign a Written Declaration calling for further EU legislation. Please see the attached copy of my Personal Declaration that states the basis on which I hold my seat in the European Parliament.

I appreciate that you may be disappointed by my response but I hope you will appreciate that I am maintaining a consistent stance for those who elected me on the principles on which I stood.***

what a twat, he deserves a CotHO nomination..

Received positive responses from all London MEP's apart from UKIP and the following from Green Party:

[SIZE=2]Dear XXXX,

Thank you for your email.

Road safety is an extremely important issue, and I am pleased to inform you that I have signed Written Declaration 0081/2010 on heavy goods vehicle collisions. I am also bringing the declaration to the attention of my Green colleagues in the European Parliament.

Blind spots around heavy goods vehicles is a particularly important issue, with cyclists and pedestrians being extremely vulnerable. This is reflected in the tragic road deaths and injuries we continue to see in London.

Keith Taylor, Green MEP for South-East England, is responsible for road safety on the European Parliament's Transport and Tourism Committee for the Greens. He has also signed the declaration and is committed to improving road safety by a number of means. In the UK, Greens continue to press for much greater roll-out of 20mph speed limits - something which Keith and I have both called for.

Technology is clearly an major part of the solution. However, I believe that better driving is also necessary.

Thank you again for raising this important issue. I hope that you receive a positive response from your other MEPs.

Yours sincerely,

Jean Lambert MEP
Green Party Member of the European Parliament for London

Has anyone had any success contacting foreign MEP's?
[/SIZE]

one more,
I am pleased to say that I have signed this Written Declaration and I very
much hope it receives the required number of signatures to become official
European Parliament policy.
With thanks for writing.
Best wishes
Glenis Willmott MEP
MEP for the East Midlands
Leader of the European Parliamentary Labour Party

Cutting it a bit fine (backlog of emails, life etc...)
written to them!

What a nice reply from Glenis Willmott MEP. I remember last year when only 6 Tories signed the Labour sponsored EDM we had. Pretty small minded blind patriotism. Got everything crossed we get enough signatures.

I wrote to mine and got positives from 3 out of 4
Think they've been out-lined above.

Kamall = )
Wolfe = )
Lambert = )

Batten = (

Hope things go well today in Strasbourg.

Another confirmation from Ian Hudghton MEP.

Thanks for your mail referring to EP Written Declaration 81, on the subject of the safety of cyclists in HGV blind spots.

I have signed the declaration, and I thank you for bringing your views to my attention.

Best wishes.

Ian Hudghton MEP

Done.

Ruby Thompson, MEP, says yes. Anyone know how they faired y'day?

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for all your efforts. Apparently we made a real difference in Strasbourg, and with all your letters. We have 323 signatures which leaves 46 to get. Because we are so close we have been granted an extension until 10 March.

The spreadsheet of responses on eildihcairns.com/campaign is being updated to show those signed and not signed. Slovenia (100%), Ireland , Lithuania & The UK achieved the best results with both Portugal and Romania achieving over 60%.
We had our worst result from Sweden...? Prob cos legislation is already tighter there than we are proposing.
Someone has sliced and diced the names so we can see who we target next.
Richard Howitt who promised that all Labour would sign did not sign himself.....the only labour MEP not to sign.
6 Conservatives were unsigned, arm twisting of Giles Chichester did not work.
Looking unsigned by grouping it looks as if there are sufficient European liberals and greens with a few others to get the numbers we need.
Website will be updated with this stuff soon.
Many many thanks to all.
Ktee

Ok, just done Keith Taylor MEP Greens for the south east. Awating my reply and I hope no one has already sent him one

Another one for your list... Julie Girling MEP for South West and Gibraltar initially wrote me saying she wouldn't sign and I wrote back saying 'Why the hell not?' She's since done some research in to the subject and HAS decided to sign, so that is great.

We're so close now, is there anything we can do to help lobby those who are yet to sign? Happy to send a couple more letters where necessary!

Charles Tannock (Cons) replied and signed Monday of this week.

Done - Cant image Caroline Lucas (Brighton Pavilion) hasnt already signed. Will post response

Anyone know what the cycle protest in leicester was about on Fri 25th - something to do with this declaration?

reposting the link
http://www.fionahall.org.uk/en/petition/see-me-save-me

in addition to targeting MEPs i sent out letters to my local councillors, got this reply from cllr Mike Katz

Dear Almac68

Many thanks for your enquiry regarding the Cycling safety campaign relating to HGVs.

Camden supports any changes in legislation that would make it mandatory for HGVs to have sensors and cameras to remove blind spots. The conflict between cyclists and heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) continues to be an issue. The Council is working with both cyclists and HGV drivers, in partnership with Metropolitan Police, to reduce collisions between these users. The Council has produced awareness raising videos, conducted cycle training for lorry drivers and worked with London-wide initiatives such as 'Exchanging Places' which invite cyclists to sit in a lorry driver seat.

Camden has been promoting the use of sensors to businesses in Camden and applied for funding from the Department for Transport to offer a grant to businesses to install sensors.

Unfortunately DfT did not allocate funding to Camden for this project; however some businesses in Camden have expressed an interest in getting sensors fitted.

Our current focus is to work with the Council's fleet providers and contractors and to undertake HGV driver cycle-awareness training. These projects are ongoing and Camden will continue to examine all options to reduce the conflict between cyclists and HGVs.
I hope this answers your enquiry - do let me know if you require any further information

regards

Mike
Cllr Mike Katz
Labour Councillor for Kilburn ward
London Borough of Camden
Town Hall
Judd Street
London WC1H 9JE
m: 07881 515260
e: mike.katz@camden.gov.uk

I was told Camden got the funding to go ahead with a scheme the same as Lambeth council last March. I thought the sensors were part of that. Nice of Mike to reply so thoroughly.

I'm off to Aus for 4 weeks but will have everything crossed we get enough votes!

We got all the signatures needed! Thanks to everyone on here tge help. Such a great community of cyclists.
See below from KTee (Eilidh's sister):

Dont know if you know but we just got all the signatures today.
Well done to HC and Tony and T for the final push. They are celebrating now, and then sleeping I should think.
*
Thank you Team Eilidh. Was all worth it. Shes gone European-wide now.
Bless her.
Kx

Brilliant news! So now the motion will be debated at EU level, right? Maybe when it is time for the debate and vote on the motion we can write again to all our representatives to encourage them to vote in favour.

How incredible to think that a few emails from concerned individuals (and a lot of hard work behind the scenes by some dedicated volunteers!) could lead to EU-wide laws being passed that could potentially help save cyclist's lives. That's pretty profound.

Well done everyone, LFGSS should be proud.