Government tells police and councils to target bikers for cash

Police and councils were told to target motorcyclists in order to get government road safety funding.

The instructions were contained in a brief setting out how applications should be made for funding for this year.

It’s why at least four counties have devised operations targeting motorcyclists.

Derbyshire has a new ‘motorcycle detection’ system on popular riding routes including the Cat and Fiddle partly funded by a £200,000 Department for Transport (DfT) grant.

Cheshire has secured £597,000 towards plans to target motorcyclists with rear-facing average-speed cameras.

Robert Hill, Manager of the Derby & Derbyshire Road Safety Partnership, said: “This year the brief suggested motorcycle casualties should be a focus. It talked about motorcycle projects as something that would be looked favourably on.

“The bottom line was: ‘If we support you, how are you going to have a new approach to reducing motorcycle casualties?’”

MCN asked the DfT to show us the brief but after 24 hours a spokesman could still not say whether it would be made available.

The spokesman said: “Motorcycling was one of the themes that Road Safety Partnership grants were to focus on this year because obviously motorcyclists are over-represented in casualties and we want to look at schemes to address that.”

Research from the Institute of Advanced Motorists found up to one in six motorcyclist deaths could result from hitting a roadside crash barrier designed for the safety of car occupants.