Thanks to the efforts of the KillSpills anti-diesel spill campaign, the Department for Transport (DfT) is to undertake a two-year study into the problem of diesel spillages and the most effective way of cleaning them up.
The KillSpills campaign, founded in 2003 to counter the menace of diesel spillage and particularly, the danger it presents to motorcyclists, say that this major step forward means that as an integral part of the DfT’s business plan, the project will produce guidance for Local Authorities and the Highways Agency to follow, so ending the confusing array of procedures and solutions currently adopted across the UK.
The culmination of six years campaigning by the KillSpills team in raising the profile of the diesel spill menace, the DfT study was finally agreed last week following a commitment from the British Motorcyclists Foundation and the Institute of Advanced Motorists to offer to ‘pump-prime’ the research project with a £10,000 joint donation. In practice however, such was the case presented by the KillSpills team that the DfT will now be funding the project entirely from their budget.
Stephen Edwards, the leader of the KillSpills campaign, said after the meeting “This is a fantastic outcome and another step closer to ridding the roads of diesel contamination. It is only through the long-term help of the BMF and more recently the IAM, plus the support of our dedicated volunteers, that we have been able to get this far and for this all this help and support I give my sincere thanks.”
For the BMF Foundation, Peter Laidlaw, BMF Director and BMF Foundation Trustee said: “The BMF Foundation was founded to support safety related projects in the interest of motorcycling and what could be better than this? We showed commitment and it has been rewarded with commitment from government. We can’t ask more than that.”
The DfT clean-up project is the latest stage in a campaign that has seen on-road demonstrations coupled to annual reports being presented to the Prime Minister in 10 Downing Street. It has also seen annual awards presented to companies or organisations that have excelled in their efforts to combat diesel spillages.
This year TruckProtect Ltd, the manufacturer of the anti-spillage ‘Neck-It’ fuel-filling device, is the winner of the KillSpills/British Motorcyclists Federation/IAM Award 2009 for ‘Achievement in Reducing Diesel Spills’ and will receive their award at the International Motorcycle Show, NEC, Birmingham on press day 26th November.
This is the Fifth year of the award, previous winners being ASDA in 2005, Sainsbury’s in 2006, the Highways Agency in 2007 and the DfT in 2008, all of them recognised for the work they had done in raising awareness of the dangers of diesel spillage and taking measures to prevent it. |
