Plenary, 11 Dec 2003

Meeting date: Thursday, December 11, 2003

Official Report 675KB pdf

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Speed Limits around Schools

The final item of business today is a members' business debate on motion S2M-615, in the name of Bill Butler, on 20mph speed zones around schools. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.

Motion debated,

That the Parliament congratulates Glasgow City Council on its decision to introduce mandatory 20 mph speed limits outside every school in Glasgow; hopes that other local authorities will follow Glasgow City Council's example in trying to improve the safety of pupils travelling to and from school, and views this as a significant and welcome step in implementing the Scottish Executive's commitment to improve Scotland's record on road traffic accidents, in particular the objective of cutting the number of young people killed and injured on roads each year.

I begin by thanking the many members from all parties and from no party who supported my members' business motion. The widespread support for the motion demonstrates the importance to all our constituents of a measure that, in my experience, has been warmly welcomed by parents, pupils, teachers and the wider community.

I decided to lodge the motion in response to the publication on Tuesday 18 November of Glasgow City Council's plans to ensure that all 258 schools in the city—primary schools, secondary schools and special needs schools—are located within a 20mph speed zone.

Glasgow City Council has taken that decision because results of a Scotland-wide pilot study showed a positive public response to specific mandatory regulation. I applaud Glasgow's commitment to employ the measure with the laudable objective of cutting the number of injuries sustained by Glasgow pupils travelling to and from school.

As members will know, the background to the 20mph speed zone scheme is the Scottish Executive's ambitious road safety target, which was reiterated by the Minister for Transport in September. He stated:

"The Executive is committed to cutting the number of deaths and injuries on our roads"

and aims

"to halve the number of children killed and seriously injured by 2010."

I am positive that 20mph speed zones in and around schools will play a significant part in meeting that objective.

The scheme in Glasgow will be funded to the tune of £4 million, which is Glasgow's share of the welcome £27 million of funding announced by Mr Nicol Stephen that is to be used nationwide over the next three years to introduce 20mph speed zones.

The introduction of specific mandatory speed limits makes a difference in reducing the number of accidents involving young people. The Executive's figures show that 20mph zones and traffic-calming measures can reduce child pedestrian accidents by 70 per cent and child cyclist accidents by 60 per cent. That positive finding was corroborated by three separate pilot projects for lower speed limits around schools that were held in the Maryhill, Cardonald and Springburn areas of Glasgow. The pilot projects served to reinforce the effectiveness of lower speed limits in cutting the number of accidents.

The councillor for the Cardonald ward on Glasgow City Council, Alistair Watson—a former colleague of mine—is on record as saying that

"20 mph speed limits were successfully pioneered in Glasgow"

and he expresses pleasure that they are now to be

"rolled out to schools across Scotland."

I believe that 20mph speed limits will make the roads safer not only for young people but for other road users. As members will know, our schools are largely located in residential areas, so the scheme will also have a positive effect on all pedestrians and cyclists within those areas.

I know from speaking to my constituents that Glasgow City Council's plans have been warmly received. I recently visited Summerhill Primary School in Drumchapel to talk about the scheme with the head teacher, Mrs Buist, and with pupils and staff. I was delighted by their enthusiastic response and their knowledge of the scheme.

In another area of my Glasgow Anniesland constituency, Blairdardie, local residents—with the active support of their local councillor, Steven Purcell—have campaigned relentlessly for the introduction of improved road safety measures at Blairdardie Primary School. I am pleased to hear that plans to introduce a 20mph limit have been agreed and will be implemented in the next financial year.

I take the opportunity afforded by the debate to mention the part played by the Drumchapel social inclusion partnership, and many other SIPs throughout Scotland, in promoting several initiatives to push the road safety message and to address specific stretches of road that have proven to be prone to road traffic accidents.

It is unfortunate and totally unacceptable that people in the poorest, most disadvantaged groups in society are the most likely to be involved in an accident. There is a real link between restricted access to employment, education, good-quality housing and amenities and an increased likelihood of injury and death caused by a road accident.

It is my conviction that social inclusion partnerships have a role in breaking that link. The children's road safety project that the Drumchapel SIP runs aims to educate young people about road safety. I believe that SIPs have a key role to play in educating people and promoting the road safety message among community organisations, schools and youth groups.

As well as playing a role in education, Drumchapel SIP has—in conjunction with Glasgow City Council—implemented physical improvements to local accident spots and put in place traffic-calming measures. One example of that is a number of road improvements that have been made on Garscadden Road, at the entrance to the new Donald Dewar leisure centre. Those measures have improved the safety of the footpath and increased the safety of pedestrians who use the sports centre, many of whom are young people.

Providing a safe and secure environment in which young people can travel to and from school will mean additional benefits, apart from the obvious one of reducing the number of young people who are killed and injured on Scotland's roads. For example, making it easier to walk to school will help to tackle the problem of inactivity and lack of exercise among Scotland's young people.

The chamber will be aware that NHS Quality Improvement Scotland's recent clinical outcome indicators report highlights the gravely concerning physical condition of an increasing number of our young people. For example, one in 10 Scottish children aged 12 are classified as obese and one in three are classified as overweight. For that reason, I was pleased to hear the First Minister at last week's First Minister's question time stress the importance of walking in making a significant contribution to the nation's exercise habits and the fight against obesity.

In conclusion, I again commend Glasgow City Council and other local authorities that have come forward with plans to implement 20mph speed limits around our schools. I hope that other local authorities that have set time scales for such schemes will implement the appropriate measures as expeditiously as possible. It is important that we improve—and continue to improve—road safety.

The number of young people killed and injured on our roads has fallen recently, but it is still unacceptably high. Twenty miles per hour zones are not a panacea that will eradicate injuries and deaths on our roads overnight; however, along with the improved education of our young people and joint working among the agencies involved—the Executive, local authorities, SIPs, the police and community organisations—they will play a significant part in developing practical methods of improving road safety within our local communities. I welcome the zones, as I am sure do all members in the chamber.

I congratulate Bill Butler on securing this very important debate on an issue that affects not just all of us in the chamber, but our constituents and their children. At this point, I should mention Rosie Kane, who also put her name to this motion on 20mph speed zones. The Parliament sends its best wishes to Rosie, who I am sure would have been here to speak in the debate had she felt well enough to do so.

Bill Butler referred to Glasgow City Council. As someone who has at times sparred with its representatives, I should take this opportunity to congratulate the council—and in particular my long-time political sparring partner, Alistair Watson—on all the hard work that has been carried out not just in Cardonald but throughout the local authority area.

Glasgow City Council has been successful in the vigorous way that it has pursued this matter and I hope that the introduction of 20mph speed zones around schools will be rolled out throughout the country. However, I am worried that money will be concentrated only on zones surrounding schools and will not be allocated to areas in and around hospitals and to housing schemes that are located slightly away from schools. I know that members are always asking for more money, but I must ask the minister whether, in addition to the £4 million that has been allocated, there will be any more money to extend the 20mph speed limit to other residential areas and housing schemes.

I realise that members will talk about their own areas. Bill Butler mentioned Anniesland, but there are many other areas within Glasgow city. For example, people assume that, because Townhead and Garnethill are in the city centre, there are no children there. I assure members that many kids live in those areas. Indeed, people seem to forget that Townhead, which is sometimes used as a rat-run, is actually a housing scheme. As a result, I am glad to see that a 20mph speed zone has been introduced for a school in that area. However, people simply zoom through other parts of Townhead to get on to the motorway. In that respect, I must pay tribute to Glasgow City Council for its decision to introduce speed bumps in that area.

People do not realise that the Garnethill area at the top of Sauchiehall Street contains nursery, primary and secondary schools. Because so much is going on in the city centre, they tend to take their cars up into the area around the Glasgow School of Art. Anyone who has walked up Rose Street and the aptly named Hill Street will know that those streets are very steep and unfortunately cars sometimes come speeding down them. I hope the minister will also comment on that particular issue.

As I said earlier, I congratulate Bill Butler on lodging his motion, and I also congratulate Glasgow City Council on being at the forefront of pushing the 20mph zones. However, I would like the initiative to be extended, and I hope that the minister can give us some assurances that there will be more money to extend the zones, not just to roads outside schools but to roads outside hospitals and to roads in residential areas, which sometimes become a bit of a rat-run. The kids in residential areas need protection as well.

I take the opportunity to speak in tonight's very welcome debate led by Bill Butler partly because my colleague, Glasgow regional member Bill Aitken, who I am sure would have wished to speak in the debate, is incapacitated, as many members know. At the moment, he is confined to following the Parliament's proceedings from his living room. I am sure that, just as Sandra White wished Rosie Kane well, we would also wish Bill Aitken well and hope that he is soon back among us. Bill Aitken also had a long tradition of sparring within and without Glasgow City Council, but I know that the 20mph zones are an initiative that he would very much welcome.

From my 14 years of working in and around Glasgow city centre, I know how much traffic to and from school impacts on the traffic flows in the city. At the end of his speech, Bill Butler made an important point about the need to encourage a wider debate—not necessarily a political debate—about transportation to and from school. Anybody who has used the Kingston bridge knows that the biggest single factor that has an impact on traffic there is whether the schools are in session. We must consider initiatives to encourage people to walk to school, because there is no doubt that the number of accidents in and around schools is affected by the volume of traffic that we see round schools in the morning.

I am a personal supporter of the view that we should consider differential speed limits, which is another issue that is worthy of debate. We have a very general approach to speed limits in this country. If a road has a specific designation and meets certain strict criteria, it gets one speed limit. If it meets other criteria it gets another speed limit, which does not take local criteria into account. I am sure that we have all seen sections of dual carriageway where we are asked to drive at 30mph, while on other roads that appear to be adjacent to residential properties, schools or hospitals, the general speed limits apply.

I very much support the proposals that have been floated by my Westminster colleague, Peter Duncan MP, to examine further the possibilities of differential speed limits, so that the speed limit reflects more closely local road conditions. If road users respected the speed limits that they were being asked to observe, differential speed limits might, as part of a general approach, encourage them to adhere more closely to the limits, which is the ultimate objective.

Sandra White mentioned housing areas. We want to encourage the police and other enforcement agencies to focus more of their efforts on speeding and other infringements of road traffic legislation in and around housing areas. I appreciate that it is easy and straightforward to sit on a motorway bridge with a speed camera and clock people going underneath, but a more focused use of police resources and a greater police presence in some residential areas would be helpful.

I have much pleasure in supporting Bill Butler's motion.

Bill Butler dealt very well with the issue of the 20mph speed limit, and he is to be congratulated on bringing it forward. The toll of death and injury to our young people is a great blot on Scottish life and we must attack it in different ways. The 20mph limit is obviously one good way of doing so, but I will mention some of the others, and I hope that the minister will be able to tell us how well we are progressing. On some of them, I ask him to co-operate with his colleagues in education, housing and communities.

I was one of the members who managed to get the concept of home zones included in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2001, which we passed in the previous session of Parliament. Home zones have a role to play. The idea of the home zone is to make the streets in a particular area friendly to people rather than to vehicles—either through putting in place physical measures or through creating an atmosphere—and to reclaim the streets for people. A generation ago, lots of children played in the street, but now it is much more dangerous for them to do so and their parents often keep them at home, so the development of the home zones concept would fit well with the introduction of 20mph speed limits. I hope that the Executive encourages councils to set up trial home zones.

There are various aspects to getting to school in a more socially acceptable way, by cycling, for example, or by using a walking bus—although the configuration of catchment areas obviously means that those do not suit every school. The walking-bus system suits some schools, however; I took part in one and was very impressed by it.

To encourage children to cycle to school, we need to put in place physical measures on the route and at the school and we need to educate children, their parents and motorists. In my experience, in particular as a councillor, a lot of the trouble is caused by parents, some of whom park at schools in quite the most selfish manner and cause a lot of trouble to all and sundry. We must educate parents to behave in a civilised way.

All those measures, added together, can start to create a better climate in which to get our young people to school in a safe and healthy way. That will improve our communities, because if young people use their energies sensibly, by walking or cycling to school, they are less likely to cause trouble.

At the annual general meeting of 6VT—the Edinburgh city youth café on Victoria Terrace—I was introduced to breakdancing, which I recommend as an amazing way for young people to work off their energies without hurting one another. Breakdancing is probably not something that comes under the Minister for Transport's remit—

May we have a demonstration?

No, I will spare members that.

The motion contains some very good points. We should draw up a scheme to encourage more civilised and safe ways of travelling to school and I hope that the minister will consider those ideas.

As well as my responsibilities as a member of the Scottish Parliament, on Fridays I usually have the responsibility of being the walking bus—if I may use that phrase. I walk with half a dozen children from my street to the local primary school and I am conscious of my responsibility as I note the speed of the cars that go by.

West Lothian Council has introduced 20mph speed limits in a number of areas, particularly in villages. Indeed I think that it might have done so before Glasgow City Council, but I will not be picky about the dates.

When the minister announced the very welcome money to support the introduction of 20mph speed limits, I was not sure to what extent councils that had already introduced such speed limits off their own backs and without Executive funding would be compensated. I would like the minister to address that point, which raises a central issue about the extent to which the Parliament should dictate what local authorities do. If local authorities are capable of coming up with good ideas and practices themselves, should they not be given the resources that would allow them to make decisions, rather than be allocated ring-fenced money, however welcome that might be? That is a general point that is not just about transport but about the issues that the Parliament has to address.

On 8 October when the minister announced the £27 million for local authorities, he said that the money was for the introduction of 20mph speed limits. My understanding is that there are three different types of measure that local authorities can bring in. The first type are mandatory 20mph speed zones, which have particular criteria including traffic-calming measures and for which the police's support must be obtained. The second type are mandatory 20mph speed limits, which are different and include different speed measures. In the second category, the speed below which 85 per cent of vehicles travel should be less than or equal to 24mph. There do not necessarily have to be traffic-calming measures. The third type includes a legally enforceable speed limit of 30mph, for which the support of local residents is crucial.

The Executive's announcement was about speed limits, not about speed zones, which are the most stringent measure. I would like clarification of what the Executive expects local authorities to introduce, because there is quite a lot of difference between speed limits and speed zones. If the speed limits are just advisory—the third type of measure—that can be problematic. I refer to the experience of West Lothian Council, because it is probably more advanced in implementing its zones than are other authorities. We might have to address what action is required, because people do not have to pay attention and at 20 minutes to 9 in the morning, the police are not necessarily out monitoring or enforcing the measures. Therefore I am not convinced that the speed limits will have the impact that we want them to have—we have to be conscious of that. They can make a visual impact, as people driving past the school are made aware that they have to slow down. I seek clarification from the minister on the three different categories.

It is interesting to note that whereas in 1972, 111 child pedestrians in Scotland were killed and 2,500 were seriously injured, in 2002 only 14 were killed—that is an improvement, but it is still 14 too many—but still more than 2,000 were injured. We must address those statistics, because even one life is worth the measures.

We are obviously conscious of the role of lollipop men, and we should acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the introduction of lollipop men and women. When I walk to school in my walking bus on a Friday morning, I meet the two Ronnies. They are not the comedians that we know from the television, but they certainly are cheerful and they give children confidence in walking to school on their own, which is important. We should put our thanks to them on the record.

I welcome the debate and support the motion. The introduction of 20mph zones for Glasgow schools is a welcome development. The twenty's plenty signs that I saw when I was learning to drive a couple of years ago are starting to become a familiar sight. It has been shown that even small speed reductions have an important part to play in reducing the incidence and severity of injuries and the risk of death when accidents occur.

I echo some of Donald Gorrie's comments that we can take further steps. The Greens have been banging on about the concept of home zones for a number of years. We have to recognise that speed bumps and flashing lights on their own are not enough. We need to take a broader view of road safety and implement other measures, such as a country-wide adoption of such home zones. The home-zone principle is about giving communities, that have been given over little by little to the car, back to the children and adults who live there. That principle requires the further courageous step of not just 20mph zones but 10mph zones.

The partnership agreement between Labour and the Liberal Democrats includes a commitment to support the development of home zones, which is hugely welcome. We often criticise the Executive for all its little green trees, but we genuinely support that one. However, it is sad that, as far as I am aware, only four home zones are being piloted in Scotland; we really want to see that moved on.

Turning streets into valuable public spaces that are an asset, rather than just gaps between buildings, involves a mixture of legal and physical barriers, sanctions or interventions, such as traffic-calming measures, trees and bushes, seating or play areas and clear signage. In Glasgow, too many of our small parks and play areas are being swallowed up by housing developments, all of which add more car parking spaces. Streets that are already congested are getting worse. I hope and trust that the Executive will take the benefits of home zones seriously.

We have to consider other issues—not only to do with how we design our streets and urban communities, or to do with zones and speed limits, but to do with traffic levels. We have continually talked about the demand for traffic reduction targets. By 2020, Glasgow will have seen a 40 per cent increase in road traffic levels, according to the Scottish Executive's figures. That increase is bigger than the Scottish Executive's own "do nothing" model. Despite all the interventions, developments, changes and policies that the Executive is bringing in, we are seeing a bigger increase in road traffic. That will inevitably mean a higher incidence of road accidents, whatever the speed limits and whatever the urban design. If we want to reduce road traffic deaths by 2010, we will have to consider where we will be by 2020, when the streets will be far busier. People have to have genuine choices. If the roads are still busy, or if they are perceived to be unsafe, people will still get in their cars to take the kids to school. If it is cars that cause the danger and the fear, we need to change the culture. That will never be easy, but the only way to guarantee that we fail to achieve it will be not to try to achieve it.

There is an implicit admission in Glasgow City Council's welcome and positive step: road traffic dangers must be addressed. They must be addressed everywhere, not only outside schools.

I would like to add my congratulations to Bill Butler on bringing such an important topic to the chamber. The heading for this debate should probably be, "credit where credit is due". I and others in the chamber will continue to have political differences with Glasgow City Council because of some of the things that it does or does not do; but, in this instance, Glasgow City Council deserves 100 per cent credit for being a trail-blazer with its 20mph speed limits.

A scheme has been tried and monitored in my street in Glasgow—Paisley Road West—outside Lourdes Secondary School and Lourdes Primary School. The 20mph zone is not applied all the time, but it is applied at the important school times. The monitoring has shown almost overwhelming acceptance of the 20mph zone when it is applied. That is very important. Drivers are recognising the need for increased vigilance and road safety during the peak times when schools are going in or coming out, and during lunch times. The scheme has already been very successful and it will contribute to making the roads around the schools—and therefore the children—safer.

Glasgow City Council deserves credit for many things—Bill Butler and I had the shared pleasure of serving on it for 11 long years. The council has come forward with a number of initiatives. It was the first to introduce free fruit, the first to introduce free breakfasts, and the first to introduce free school meals for primary school children. Just as I hope that the 20mph zones will be introduced across the whole of Scotland, I hope that free lunches—at least for primary school children, minister—will be introduced too. In the previous session of Parliament, the minister opposed that; I hope that he will not oppose the rolling out of the 20mph zones.

I hope that the minister will tell us tonight, one, that he welcomes what Glasgow is doing and, two, that he will be more proactive in writing to local authorities and getting involved in as much publicity as possible, trying to show what can be achieved when a local authority decides to take this idea on board. It would be beneficial if we were able to say that all Scottish schools were willing to adopt these zones as significant road safety measures.

I hope that Bill Butler does not mind, but I want to add one small sour note. In Glasgow, a primary school closure programme is under way. The worry is that, as part of that programme, many community schools face closure. Literally hundreds of primary school children will have much a longer journey to their schools. Many of them will have to use buses for that journey and others will have to walk greater distances. That slightly undermines the promotion of increased road safety for school children and I hope that Glasgow City Council will be extremely cautious in its thinking about the closure of any of those schools.

I look forward to the minister not only supporting what Glasgow is doing, but giving an indication that the 20mph concept will also be proactively promoted in housing estates and schemes.

As many members have said, this is an important subject. I will focus on the second part of the motion. I hope that other local authorities across Scotland—particularly Edinburgh, from my point of view—will follow Glasgow's good example.

Having 20mph zones outside schools is an effective way of reducing the numbers of severe casualties. Fiona Hyslop and Bill Butler mentioned statistics that I do not mind emphasising. Research shows that, in areas with 20mph zones, injuries have fallen by 60 per cent, child pedestrian accidents by 70 per cent and child accidents by 48 per cent. That success is excellent for Glasgow and other parts of Scotland. I am pleased that, as far back as 2001, Edinburgh City Council had plans to place 20mph zones around schools and was part of the initial successful trials. Six schemes have been built that involve traffic-calming measures and/or flashing temporary speed signs and I understand that a considerable number of others are in the pipeline.

The £2.15 million that the Executive announced in September for Edinburgh will enable many other schools across Edinburgh to be included in the scheme. I am encouraged that, over the next three years, there is a possibility that all schools in Edinburgh will have 20mph zones around them. Clearly, that will have an impact on the number of casualties. I will continue to press for as many of those schemes as possible to be implemented as soon as possible.

The 20mph zones will make areas safer and will encourage parents to allow their children to walk or cycle to school. One of the main problems in relation to the matter that we are discussing is parents insisting on driving their children to school. We need to encourage parents to stop taking cars to schools. That must be done in conjunction with other measures to reduce traffic around schools. There is no use in the speed limit being 20mph if there is indiscriminate and dangerous nose-to-tail parking in the area.

Children cannot cross the road safely and I would like some of the available money to be used to fund dedicated bus services. In my constituency, St Peter's Primary School near Tollcross had to move to temporary premises while the school building was rebuilt. There is a huge problem with parking in the area and I agree with Donald Gorrie that most of that problem is caused by the parents insisting on driving their kids to school. Walking buses, which we heard about earlier, are extremely successful and we should encourage more schools to get involved in that initiative.

The Executive is to be commended for making £43 million available to local authorities over the next three years to fund safer school projects, 20mph speed limits and other safety projects. It is up to all councils to follow Glasgow's lead and introduce the 20mph schemes at all schools, while not forgetting other measures to cut traffic.

I commend Glasgow City Council for the work that it has been undertaking to improve safety around schools.

From my experience of working on a particular case with Falkirk Council, I know that it has a rolling programme of safety around schools that involves traffic calming, safer routes to school and twenty's plenty zones.

All councils in Scotland should be encouraged to do whatever they can to ensure that roads around schools are as safe as possible. However, it is important that we ensure that councils have the funding to carry out the important work of promoting road safety.

I will raise two issues. In September last year, Cathie Craigie secured a debate on road safety. In the course of that debate, I highlighted the tragic case of a 15-year-old girl called Kathleen Fitzpatrick, who was killed not at school, but on the way home from school. She disembarked from the school bus, went round the back of the bus, went to cross the road, was knocked down by a heavy goods truck and subsequently died as a result of her injuries. We need to address not only safety immediately around schools, but to consider the wider issues of children's safety on their way home, whether they walk or go home on school transport.

I hope that the minister will consider what further measures can be taken, such as whether vehicles should not be allowed to overtake school buses while children are disembarking, as is the case in North America and some other places, which might go some way to reducing the risk to children on their way home. When I was on holiday in the Basque Country this year, I was impressed by the fact that, if a vehicle that is approaching a small village or town is exceeding the speed limit, a set of traffic lights comes on automatically and stops the vehicle from entering the area, so that it is not speeding when goes into the built-up area. Perhaps something such as that would be useful in certain situations in Scotland.

The second issue that I will raise with the minister diverges slightly from the debate and relates to drivers who are disqualified from driving. We can do a lot to make the roads safer for kids by introducing twenty's plenty zones and other measures to reduce traffic speed. However, I went through the Executive's statistics for drivers who are disqualified by the courts in Scotland and I noticed that, although some 23,000 drivers were disqualified in 1996, that dropped to just under 20,000 by 2000 and the percentage of disqualified drivers who were arrested for driving while disqualified rose to 22 per cent. Some 4,500 people in Scotland who have been disqualified from driving continue to drive daily. If we are to promote road safety, it is crucial that those who have been disqualified from driving because of their driving behaviour are kept off the roads. I hope that the minister will discuss the matter with his colleagues in the Justice Department and consider what can be done to address the issue so that bad or dangerous drivers do not put children and other road users at risk by continuing to drive while disqualified.

I am pleased to respond to the debate. I thank Bill Butler for lodging the motion and congratulate him on his stamina for also having opened the preliminary stage debate on the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine Railway and Linked Improvements Bill.

Members have mentioned Glasgow City Council's dynamism and success in introducing mandatory 20mph speed limits outside all its schools. I would like a similar approach to be taken in all Scotland's 32 local authorities, and I am happy to support all the points in Bill Butler's motion.

Mike Pringle mentioned the huge impact that 20mph zones have had on child safety statistics and the real successes that there have been in reducing serious incidents involving the injury or death of a child. We have set an ambitious target of halving by 2010 the number of children who are killed or seriously injured on Scotland's roads, compared with the average for 1994-98, and we have already made significant progress. The statistics show that, in 2002, child deaths and serious injuries were 38 per cent below the level of the mid-1990s.

I understand Patrick Harvie's concerns about there being an increased number of cars on the roads. We have to do everything that we can to reduce that number. However, it does not necessarily follow that more traffic equals more accidents, as we have seen exactly the reverse. There has been more traffic over the past 10 years, but we have managed to reduce the number of accidents. Measures such as those that we are discussing tonight can make a big impact. If they can change driver behaviour and gain the support of local communities and people, they can make a tremendous difference.

More needs to be done, however, and I do not wish for one second to be seen to be complacent on the issue. Journeys to school should be the very safest journeys for children and parents. I am a parent who tries to take my children to school, although, sadly, I am in my home city only once a week. On Fridays, I always try to walk with my children to school and I know how eventful those journeys can be. There is always the potential for incident and I know how worrying and chaotic the traffic situation can be, despite twenty's plenty signs, yellow zig-zag markings outside schools and all the other measures that can be put in place. We must do everything that we can to encourage young people and parents to undertake that walk or cycle journey to school, and we need to create the best possible environment to encourage that.

I still remember from my young days the tragic death of a child who was walking to school in the village where I lived, just outside Aberdeen. The accident happened not immediately beside the school but some way away from it, and involved the child of the local policeman, who lived just a few hundreds yards away from where his son was killed. That memory, and the shock that ripples through the school and the community when there is an incident of that sort, has always remained with me.

The big message that we should be driving home tonight is that we really can make a difference. The £27 million of funding that has been announced for the next three years can make a huge impact. Schemes such as those that we are discussing cost about £10,000 to £20,000 a time. Road safety issues can be tackled, and 20mph zones can be introduced outside a huge number of Scotland's schools—indeed, they are to be introduced at well over 1,000 schools in the initial three-year phase. I am determined that we should be able to make an impact outside every school in Scotland.

Is the £27 million that has been announced intended to allow local authorities to choose to set up mandatory zones, mandatory speed limits or advisory speed limits? What is the money actually for?

There is discretion, which goes wider than those options. In my letter to local authorities, however, I wanted to give emphasis to 20mph zones. It would be unfair to compel those authorities that have already made significant progress to ring fence the money, so the money may be used for other safety zone measures—for example, for home zone measures. Authorities that have made significant progress can spend the money in other ways, but I do not want to let off the hook the authorities that have not been making such an investment or to reduce the pressure on them to make progress. Tommy Sheridan was absolutely right in that regard. We must be proactive and sell the message about the significant improvements that can be made.

I will not go through all the different options that are detailed in front of me. They involve mandatory schemes, either with or without engineering measures, and they may be applicable either throughout the day or temporarily, with a speed limit that can change. There can also be advisory zones. Evidence shows that there is huge support in communities for any and all of those measures, and that drivers pay attention to them.

We used pilot schemes to find out what the impact of the measures would be. We can never be quite sure what driver behaviour will be—whether drivers will respect the 20mph limits—or what the impact of a scheme will be. That was particularly important in relation to speed limits that vary in the course of the day. Do drivers slow down for the half hour, or whatever the period is, during which children arrive at or leave school? All the evidence is that drivers obey the speed limits and that the schemes are successful. The trials showed the effectiveness of the new signs, and it is therefore entirely appropriate for us to spread best practice and roll out the schemes to other parts of Scotland. Glasgow City Council was one of the trail-blazers—one of the five local authorities that proved that the 20mph limit is effective.

We must now deal with the roads on which the speed limit is higher than 30mph. We want to find out how to reduce the speed through trials and the testing of different methods. I was interested in what Michael Matheson said about what goes on in the Basque Country. We need to examine best practice in different parts of the world. It might be entirely feasible to adopt Michael Matheson's suggestion in some of our rural villages, where it is necessary to bring down the speed from 60mph to 20mph over quite a short distance, because there is a school that is close to the edge of the village. Such innovative projects are well worth considering. I would support any local authority that had a sensible or appropriate pilot scheme for dealing with areas in which the speed limit is higher than 30mph.

I do not know whether the minister is aware that new school transport guidelines were issued only a few months ago. When the Education committee examined the guidelines, it was concerned to find that there did not seem to be much joined-up thinking between the Education Department and the Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department, or much innovative thinking, such as that which Michael Matheson gave an example of. Will the minister give a commitment to reconsider the school transport guidelines to ensure that we embrace some of that innovative thinking?

I am happy that we do that. As a constituency MSP, I have made representations on such issues. In some areas, we run up against the fact that some such matters are reserved—for example, I am told that, under the current devolution settlement, the school bus overtaking issue would have to be tackled by the Westminster Parliament. We must consider whether such an initiative would be as effective here as it is in North America, where there has been a long tradition of vehicles stopping to allow the school bus to drop off its pupils and to move on again, rather than overtaking it. The traffic in America respects that, but I would be very concerned if a young person started to assume that the traffic would stop, as that could be dangerous.

We recognise the merit in what Michael Matheson says and, in time, such schemes will be worth promoting in Scotland. The issue is about getting solid support—from the public, from communities and from drivers—for the new schemes. We must make progress on that, but the funding is there, so we are in a good position to make significant strides forward throughout Scotland. Some authorities have already made significant progress.

I understand that the message is that such schemes cannot be delivered overnight; it is not simply a question of erecting signs, because mandatory limits require the promotion of speed-limit orders by the relevant traffic authority and there has to be appropriate consultation with the police and other road-user interests. It is also necessary to publish proposals and consider any objections before the installation process can begin. Glasgow City Council has got off to a tremendous start.

Although each scheme must be considered carefully, we must be strong and supportive in driving forward the whole initiative, because each scheme is vital for the school and the community involved. I am determined to make real progress as quickly as possible and to ensure that the £27 million funding is used effectively to make our roads, our streets, our pavements and our routes to school safer for young people in Scotland.

Meeting closed at 17:54.