Road Safety News understands that Stephen Hammond MP is the new road safety minister. Mr Hammond, who joined the DfT in the recent Government reshuffle, has taken over from Mike Penning MP who has moved to the Northern Ireland office.
He joined the Conservative Party after leaving university and was elected councillor in Village Ward in 2002. He was elected MP for Wimbledon in May 2005 and in December 2005 was promoted to the position of shadow minister for transport, a position he held until 2010, when he was appointed parliamentary private secretary to Eric Pickles MP.
As parliamentary under-secretary of state for transport, Mr Hammond’s full portfolio comprises: strategic roads and highways agency; motoring agencies; road safety and standards; freight and logistics; maritime and dangerous goods; better regulation; London; and Crossrail.
I wish him well. Let’s hope he is more proactive than his predecessor in both securing and ring fencing more funding, say from the safety cameras for our Road Safety Teams up and down the country. However for some teams I fear that it’s too late, the expertise has been lost.
Remember Stephen, we save lives and you save money – lets get the balance right shall we, education is far better and cheaper than cure.
Gary. Coventry
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I wish him well and hope he does a good job, but this, and of the whole reshuffle reminds me yet again that any commercial company that changed its management so frequently, just as they are getting to grips with their departments, would not survive long. This must be the 5th or 6th since I started getting involved in 2000.
Idris Francis Petersfield
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