BURY South MP Ivan Lewis is backing Government moves to make streets safer.

The Government has promised to introduce powers for local authorities to bring in 20mph zones to help make streets safer for children and pedestrians.

Mr Lewis explained that currently any local authority wanting to introduce 20mph zones has to make a special application to the Secretary of State.

"In the 300 places across the country where 20mph zones have been introduced, along with traffic calming measures, pedestrian casualties have been reduced by 61 per cent," said the MP.

He added: "Child pedestrian and child cyclist casualties have been reduced by 67 per cent. These are dramatic reductions."

Mr Lewis went on: "Britain has one of the best road safety records in the world, but the safety of child pedestrians is one area where our record is not so good.

"For too long residential streets have been designed with traffic flow in mind, rather than the safety of people who live in them," said Mr Lewis.

He said the Government was trying to redress the balance in favour of safety and said the news should be warmly welcomed by families across the constituency.

There are no 20mph zones anywhere in the borough at present. But a spokesman for Bury Council's traffic and transportation section of the development services department said that it would be something they would look at in the future.

"At the moment the procedure is very long and complex," said the spokesman. "We will look at introducing 20mph zones once the streamlined procedure has been introduced."

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