VALUABLE INFORMATION FOR MAGISTRATES AT CONFERENCE - Tuesday, June 5th, 2007
Magistrates “learned a lot” about the law relating to driving at the Greater Manchester Magistrates Association bi-annual conference attended by more than 150 magistrates from across the county.
Organised by driver training specialists, the TTC Group, the conference entitled None 4 The Road & More had a wide range of speakers and workshops at the event held at Salford University.
Topics covered included drug driving, driver improvement, speed awareness, accident investigation, police roadside testing, field impairment testing, the drink drive rehabilitation scheme and the role of the Traffic Commissioner.
Inner Manchester Association secretary Richard Monkhouse said the information available to magistrates at the conference had added a great deal to the training they receive in the normal course of events.
“The information from this conference will help magistrates make more rounded judgements in court. It was very valuable and should be made more widely available,” he said.
Elliot Griffiths, a member of the Magistrates Association Traffic Committee for ten years, praised the TTC Group for putting on such a far reaching programme including valuable information for JPs on the new Road Safety Act and the alcolock ignition system.
“There is so much for magistrates to learn. There are new laws coming in and there is a need for training. There was excellent information at this conference that I did not know.”
Conference organiser Graham Wynn OBE, director of the TTC Group said: “We packed a lot of information into it for magistrates. The day was themed around motoring and there were a varied list of speakers and workshops which attracted a great deal of interest.
Driver impairment expert, Dr Rob Tunbridge, told the conference how drug driving was an “increasing” problem with almost a quarter of young people surveyed saying they drove every week while on drugs with ecstacy, cocaine and cannabis the most popular drugs.
TTCs National Training Manager Malcolm Jones said that educating drivers through police diversionary schemes such as speed awareness and driver improvement programmes was the right way forward to cutting the number of traffic offences and reducing crash statistics on UK roads.
John Price, development manager with TTC, explained the developments of police roadside testing while Traffic Commissioner Beverley Bell related her role and responsibilities. These included licensing operators, regulating professional drivers and the bus and haulage industries, and ensuring the aims of road safety and fair competition.
The TTC Group educates thousands of motorists each year through a variety of education programmes for the public and corporate sector. They run a National Driver Improvement Scheme in Kent, are ready to launch speed awareness programmes nationwide and put 10,000 convicted drink drivers each year through the rehabilitation scheme which they pioneered in 1993.
