The 2014 Laurie Bunn Award was presented recently to Aisha Butt from Hounslow Council’s road safety team, for the lead she has taken in organising a road safety X-Factor event.
The annual award is made by the London Road Safety Council (LRSC) in honour of Laurie Bunn, a former vice president and chair of LRSC.
The JRSO X Factor competition has been running for two years and is organised jointly by the road safety teams in Hounslow and Ealing. Four schools in each borough are chosen to run the competition in the summer term, and the rules state the songs performed by pupils must be about road safety.
JRSOs (junior road safety officers) at each school organise auditions and act as judges to choose a winner to represent their school at the finals held at Hounslow Civic Centre, where one of the entrants is crowned X Factor champion.
There is also a series of workshops throughout the day to test participants’ road safety knowledge.
David Williams MBE, chief executive of GEM Motoring Assist and chairman of the judging panel, said: “We are always looking for ways to make road safety popular and current with young people, and this initiative has certainly inspired a great number of youngsters to think very hard about the consequences of not taking traffic danger seriously.”
The photo shows Aisha Butt (left) with David Williams and councillor Val Clark, chairman of the London Road Safety Council.
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