VOTE: Plaques instead of ‘eyesore’ tributes?
6:27am Monday 8th February 2010 in News
PERMANENT REMINDER: RoadPeace campaigner Allan Ramsay with one of the plaques
A ROAD safety charity has called on Bolton Council to replace “eyesore” roadside tributes with permanent plaques.
The call comes two weeks after town hall chiefs agreed a new policy to remove memorials after 30 days.
And RoadPeace, which campaigns on behalf of families who have lost loved ones in road accidents, says decorative memorials are as distracting for drivers as using mobile phones at the wheel.
Allan Ramsay, a member of the charity, believes Bolton Council should support the plaque initiative which is already available to the families of people killed in road accidents.
The idea would see a small plaque, engraved with the victim’s name, placed near to the spot where they were killed.
Mr Ramsay, aged 61, of Radcliffe Moor Road, Radcliffe, said: “This idea can help make families feel better because they have a permanent reminder and it is not an eyesore.
“The memorials upset people and the flowers wilt because they need to be maintained and not everyone can do that. The hope is that the Department of Transport will recognise the plaque as a memorial, and they can’t say that it’s a distraction.”
Mr Ramsay campaigns for RoadPeace after he suffered a serious cycling accident 20 years ago.
Kathleen Rankin, whose son Christopher Dain was killed by a taxi driver in Blackburn Road in 2006, thinks the idea is “brilliant”.
Mrs Rankin said: “That spot is where your last thoughts are and the plaques I would go for. It would stop people saying the memorials are ugly.”
They cost just £1.50 to make and there is no fee but a donation can be made to the charity.
Despite making the decision on roadside tributes following a consultation, the move provoked widespread anger among families who have lost loved ones on the roads.
The council said it would be going ahead with plans for a permanent memorial tree to road death victims in Queen’s Park, instead of personal plaques across the borough.
A spokesman said: “We are aware of this (the plaque) initiative and it formed part of the consultation we carried out with over 1,000 Bolton residents. Seventy-four per cent of people consulted felt that placement of an individual permanent memorial was not appropriate, but 58 per cent felt that a permanent memorial should be placed at a separate site.”
