So who is Road Safety GB Ltd ?

As a follow up to the story about the insatiable PACTS and '1700 road deaths is not good enough' story. See my comments here. I decided to look into Road Safety GB Ltd, the originators of my story, to find out what and who they are.

Registered as yet another road safety charity -how many can society afford? With all these charities we could save more than 1700 people with their tax free incomes surely?- they are also a limited company.

Always one to be fair, I immediately announced myself and my voluntary road safety expertise to offer my services if they were interested in not for profit, not for vested interest, not for ideologically based road safety and unnecessary driver prosecution and over-slowing. Fair aims surely? Nick Rawlings, their magazine editor apparently and RSGB, from these emails, are clearly partial to non experts, with vested interests and other agendas in road safety  You may well admire their web site, Here Very smart and impressive but more of that later.No doubt the charity claims for the advertising and web maintenance and design from its funds.

I was asking Nick what is the expertise of all the officials they list, most of them council officers, and what are their CVs in road safety, driving and prosecution? Do look up your very own local officer. What £40 grand at least each for these important posts?  I asked Nick what his background was and also that of the secretary of the company, Judith Billingham, who I noted was a director of The Association of Bikeability Schemes (Tabs) and a Wiltshire Council Official.

But what you will see was a simple and straight forward question about RSGB's genuine road safety aims and from the off I ask them: 'Is your group for genuine road safety without the unnecessary prosecution of perfectly safe drivers and without the unnecessary unscientific slowing of a vital UK infrastructure?'

Nick avoided that question.

I found that very worrying. Especially as if you look at their site, since 2000 there has been a regular turnover of council officers from various authorities sitting in their Chairman's chair. So could it be that from 2000 to date, local policy is being influenced by RSGB? 

The 'charity' charges a minimum of £100 + Vat per annum to advertise wares on their directory and these include speed gun, speed camera and breathalyser suppliers and black boxes to report on driver's to insurance companies. It also hosts the big annual bun fight the Road Safety Conference at at least £295 +Vat. where the fat cats of road safety will indulge themselves while elsewhere 17000 a day will die of starvation. see 

These bashes, where our officials will go 5 star expenses paid, are not just confined to this one as The Road Safety Industry loves its lucrative and costly bun fight where they, well fed, libated and remunerated, will piously listen to theorists and guessers but no altruistic road safety experts and honesty are ever invited.

The registered address of RSGB, would you believe it, appears to be Nick's home in Wortham near Diss. Look at it on Google satellite view it's a place to die for. This is also the registered address of a company called Stennik Advertising Ltd, incorporated 11th November 1983 and when you visit their web site, Low and behold they make websites. So can we assume that RSGB's brilliant and expensive site is one of Nick's? But there's more than that. Nick clearly has understood the earning potential of road safety, as he actually sells ready made road safety packages. 

  Well well. We are now writing to all the listed officials in the councils to find out what their CV in road safety and driving is. We are posting (unidentified sender) responses here.

Now tell me there's no amateurism and profiteering in road safety.

I have now had a four page letter from no less than the Chairman of RSGB. See it and my reply here.  Very impressive and in complete contrast to being dissed by Nick. However it will mean little if local road safety continues to be based on false mantras, profit and amateur assumptions as it is now. Over to you RSGB.