Farron calls on Cumbria PCC to sign up to cycle safety campaign

South Lakes MP Tim Farron has backed a campaign by the Cyclists Defence Fund calling for stronger enforcement of traffic law and better investigations of crashes.

The Cyclists' Defence Fund is a well known cycling charity - their Patron is HM the Queen and their President is Channel 4 presenter Jon Snow.

In 2012 Cumbria Constabulary had 84 traffic police officers representing just 7.40% of all officers in the force. Since 2002/03 to 2011/12 that means that Cumbria Police has had a decrease of 22% in the number of police officers within the traffic policing function. According to the campaigners they believe that in Cumbria we see 21 road casualties per traffic officer.

Tim is asking for Cumbria's Police Commissioner to formally respond to the report 'Road Justice: the role of the police' and is calling on him to implement the report's recommendations. The Commissioner recently met campaigners and took a photo outside a police station, but according to the campaigners he has not yet replied to their report.

In July Tim found out for himself just how tough it is to travel along Lake District roads as a cyclist. Tim cycled with local resident Paul Holdsworth to see for himself how dangerous the A591 from Brockhole to Ambleside can be.

Tim said: "I cycled from Brockhole to Ambleside after a number of complaints from my constituents about the poor state of Lake District roads for cycling, so I decided it was time for me to step up and have a crack at it myself! I now want the PCC to step up too and agree to implement these recommendations and help protect cyclists on our highways."