Diesel Spills

Thanks for that XV. I hope other people on this forum become more aware of the dangers of diesel spills. I think most of us have at some stage slipped on diesel and possibly had a near miss or even an accident. It’s one of the few things that can’t be allowed for even if you are the most professional of riders. The KillSpills campaign is certainly worthy of our support.

Hiya peeps

Im one of the members of the KillSpills team and Webmaster for the site. I wish to take this opportunity to thank everyone on this forum for your support. If you need any more information on the campaign just post on here or PM me.

BTW – XV16 I’ve looked at the signature form and i still cant see i problem. Have you tried doing it from another computer? Has anyone else had a problem?

Thanks

DazBike – CBR600FV
http://www.killspills.org.uk

thanks for the welcome.

Try it in IE and let me know how your get on. Try the view scrips to see if they work.

DazBike – CBR600FV
http://www.killspills.org.uk

KillSpills at Westminster by Team Leader – Stephen Edwards

Well what can I say, it was fantastic.

Daz and me arranged to meet at Westminster tube at 2pm. True to form, my flight was delayed, so I didn’t arrive till 2.30, still we were in plenty of time for our meeting at 4pm.

We decided to see where we needed to go, the St Stephens gate entrance to the Palace of Westminster. We spoke to a policeman who said ignore the queue and go straight to the search area. Daz needed a smoke before we went in, so whilst we were waiting outside, I pulled out a copy of the presentation for him to look at. As I did this, I managed to cut my finger, you know the sort, a deep paper cut. With blood pouring everywhere, and me muttering to myself, a tourist came to my rescue, giving me a plaster to stick on my finger that was really nice of her. We told the lady that we were going to make a presentation to MP’s and she wished us luck.

We went in and through security, just like you go through at an airport. I have never been inside Westminster before, neither had Daz, if building is impressive on the outside, and I think it is, its staggering on the inside, we were at the home of democracy, us, just a couple of ordinary bikers, were here to tell the All Party Motorcycling Group about our killSpills campaign!

Were we nervous? No, not really, we were keen to get our message across. We made our way to committee room W3 and waited outside. We went through the presentation, made a few last minute changes and discussed our strategy. We both could not believe, that after just 6 months campaigning, we were at Westminster, this was our chance to impress the MP’s, get them on side and give the campaign a real boost. We had a lot at stake, but all our supporters were rooting for us, we could not let them down.

At 4pm prompt, we were called into the meeting, we set up the PC for the presentation, handed out the Fast Bikes key rings, which went down a hoot, and showed the MP’s the level of support we have, these are a really good quality came a comment from around the table. Copies of the presentation were handed out, together with the KillSpills information pack.

The MP’s were really keen to find out about the campaign, questions came thick and fast, they wanted statistics, what impact does diesel has on the environment? What damage does it do to roads, why does it get spilt? We had all the answers together with some photos, and they were clearly impressed. They wanted to know what was driving us, when we explained that we were not part of a corporate body, that wanted to make money out of the campaign, rather we were just ordinary voters, dedicated to improving road safety, and asking them for help, they could not refuse.

We explained the level of support we have received from Asda, Tesco, Exel, along with the FTA, MAG etc and they were impressed that we had received this level of support in such a short time. We explained that out campaign was not a nine-day wonder, that we were here for the long haul, and that we were committed to see this right through to the end.

They liked our education arguments, from advising HGV drivers, to improved rider training for bikers. We told them that diesel spills should be at the forefront of public awareness, like drink driving, or driving whilst using a mobile phone. They supported the display posters at petrol stations, and asked us to find out how many accidents are caused by drivers using mobile phones, compared to diesel, how diesel spills impact on the emergency services, and how it should be cleaned up.

We told the MP’s that we needed their help. We wanted to get the Governments THINK! Campaign to cover diesel spills, we asked if they would join us at Number 10, when we present the petition, “you bet we will” came the unanimous reply! Lembit Opik said he would table a question in the house for us and another MP (Need name Stephen someone constituency nr Heathrow) asked if we would like to meet the minister, our reply was yes, but we don’t know how to go about that. Leave that to us he replied, we will set up the meeting for you to attend and liase through Craig at MCI.

Time was precious, the MP’s had asked a lot of probing questions, we had responded with our answers and our 30 minutes went very quickly indeed. We ended by thanking them for their time and listening to our presentation. Their reply was that we had no need to thank them, they were thanking us for running a very important road safety campaign and coming to London to discuss it with them. They wished us success for the future, said our presentation was professional and business like and with strong hand shakes, the meeting broke up. At the end Bishop …… came to me and asked what bike I ride, I replied I had just taken delivery of a 2004 R1, hummm he said, that must cost a bit to insure.

As we left Jenny from MCI said to us that she had been miniting the group for the past three years, and she had never seen the MP’s so concerned about any subject. She said they were riveted and the questions should tell us just how interested they are in the KillSpills campaign. It was a really fantastic afternoon, and a credit to the whole of the KillSpills team and our supporters.

dont forget to visit the website http://www.killspills.org.uk

thanks

Daz

DazBike – CBR600FV
http://www.killspills.org.uk