Thousands of protesters have called on Bolton Council to abandon plans to remove roadside memorials, according to a local news report.
An online protest against its decision to remove tributes after 30 days has attracted more than 2,500 supporters in just two days.
Zena Bate, whose sister Carla was killed by a drink-driver in 2004, set up the Keep Our Road Side Memorials page on social networking site Facebook.
She said: “I couldn’t believe it when my mum said the council wanted to remove Carla’s picture and the bows. I had to do something but I never expected so many people to join the group in such a short space of time.
“I think that we need to sit down with the council because we cannot see why, after five years, they suddenly want to start removing the tributes.”
The council wants to removed memorials after 30 days and place a permanent memorial in a special area in Queens Park, Bolton.
More than 1,000 people took part in a public consultation over the new policy. More than 80% of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that memorials causing a risk to safety should be removed by the council.
A council spokesman said: “We are aware that the removal of roadside tributes is a sensitive issue, but we must balance the needs of the grieving
families with the needs of the residents who live around the sites of these tributes.
“We are also aware that the families placing these tributes often put themselves in danger and our responsibility is to prevent any further accidents on the highways.”
Click here to read the full Bolton News press report.
Grieving relatives may be upset by this policy, understandably so as they will see it as removing any trace of their loved one and the prospect of the memorial perhaps warning another driver and thus avoiding a repetition. If a life can be saved, it can help relatives to feel that their own loss has not been entirely in vain.
However, there is no evidence that I know of to support this feeling and hope – we simply don’t know whether or not this canm or does help others not to crash. There is a potential risk to those placing tributes in some places, although this can be managed if they are accompanied and advised by police or highways engineers when visiting a site. If the cause of the crash was distraction related, a tribute may be inadvisable as it could form additional distraction.
And please do remember that, particularly in urban areas, the first people on the scene will have been local residents and other road users for whom repeated reminders of the trauma of the scene they encountered can be extremely difficult to deal with – they need to be able to cope with what happened to them and their recovery can be severely affected by the replacement and renewal of these memorials. A sensible policy sensitively applied can be a reasonable approach to balance these different needs.
Honor Byford, North Yorkshire
0