The facts
Client:
Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council
Location: Bastwell, Blackburn
Services: Road Safety Education
Sector: Road Safety
Start/Completion: 2005 - Ongoing
The project
Capita Symonds' Casualty
Reduction Team in Blackburn is responsible for all aspects of road
safety, for all members of the community. Our aim is to reduce
casualties throughout the Borough by working with partner
organisations and the community, using a holistic approach rather
than tackling the issues in isolation with a single measure. This
approach has had a fundamental effect on casualty reduction in the
Borough.
Blackburn with Darwen is located in East
Lancashire with a population of 140,000. 25.5% of the estimated
population are children aged 15 and under and 22.1% are of ethnic
origin. Blackburn is a very compact town, with a dense housing
pattern at its core, enabling many journeys to be made on foot.
There is low car ownership within the Borough:
33.5% of residents do not own a vehicle, so many people
either use public transport or walk, making them more
vulnerable to traffic and roads they encounter on their
journeys. All of these factors contribute to the
high levels of multiple deprivations within the borough and
consequently the raised levels of road casualties, particularly
road traffic incidents involving children.
The Bastwell area of Blackburn lies on a main
arterial route out of Blackburn town centre and consequently
experiences a high volume of traffic at rush hour. The area is
predominated by terraced housing opening directly onto the
street. Bastwell has a large Muslim community and a high
concentration of mosques.
One particular area for concern was a ‘spike’
in casualties involving children in the Bastwell area. Data
analysis showed that many of the incidents were taking place
between 4pm and 8pm, times that corresponded with young children’s
journeys to and from the mosques in the area. The Bastwell Safety
Forum raised concerns about the safety of children as they
travelled to mosque. Many young children had no parental
supervision and had to negotiate busy roads and complex
junctions.
In response to this, the Casualty Reduction
Team developed a Mosque Marshalling Scheme based on similar
principles to the school crossing patrols.
The scheme was launched in June 2005
developed in partnership with Bastwell Safety Forum, the
Neighbourhood Road Safety Initiative (NRSI) and the local
community. It targets all age groups who attend three mosques
situated within the Bastwell and Brookhouse areas of the
Authority.
The scheme provides seven fully trained
marshals to assist over 600 children to cross the road at strategic
points of their journey to and from the mosques within the
area. Through the scheme, children attending mosques in
the area have received high visibility jackets and the CRT has
provided educational inputs for over 700 children as well as
publicising the scheme and training volunteer marshals. In
September 2007 a series of seminars for parents was held in a
number of mosques in the area tackling road safety issues such as
seatbelts, child restraints and parking.
Capita Symonds' role was primarily in
facilitating the community in setting up and sustaining this
innovative scheme. Our team guided the community towards
a marshal type solution rather than more formalised school crossing
patrol equivalent in the interests of cost, sustainability and
engagement.
Suitable sites for marshals were chosen and
risk assessed and the marshals were given training. Marshals
were provided with high visibility wear through the initial
funding. Capita Symonds also provided road safety education in the
mosques to back-up and promote the marshalling
scheme. The team continues to promote the scheme,
nominating the scheme for the Prince Michael of Kent Award and
holding various seminars to endorse it amongst road safety
professionals, including the 2008 RoSPA National Congress.
Capita Symonds continues to support mosque
marshalling through education, training and exploring further
funding streams.
This project was the first of its kind and
since its inception a number of similar schemes across the country
have been started, including ones in Burnley and Bury. The
scheme has even been promoted by Roadsafe® in India.
Awards
- 2006 Prince Michael of Kent
International Road Safety Award