Road safety gets our attention because it’s an issue for the public

As the Community Inspector for Broxburn, Uphall, Winchburgh and Linlithgow wards, one of the most frequent cause of the complaints that I receive is road safety.

Whether that means speeding vehicles, off-road motorbikes or dangerous and indiscriminate parking, I want to reassure you that Police Scotland are committed to dealing with these important issues.

Locally, we support national campaigns on these matters and indeed have our Community Action Team, our Community Ward officers and our Roads Policing department collectively and regularly targeting areas where road safety has been highlighted as a potential problem.

Police Scotland are running a two-week mobile phone/ driver distraction campaign which recently got under way and concludes on March 5. This is in response to a change in the penalties involved for using a mobile phone or hand-held device while driving where the penalties will double, increasing from £100 fine and three penalty points to £200 fine and six penalty points.

This change will take effect from Wednesday, March 1, and the intention of the first phase of the campaign is to raise awareness of the associated risks and imminent change in penalties.

The second phase will challenge those drivers who continue to take risks, irrespective of the increased penalties.

The following advice should be followed in relation to mobile phones and hand-held devices.

Always switch off your device before you drive off, even if you’re using a hands-free phone you should avoid making or answering calls when driving as all phone calls distract a driver’s attention from the road.

Park safely before using your mobile phone and don’t call other people when they’re driving.

If you call someone and they tell you they are driving, ask them to call you back when they have parked up safely.

Using any mobile phone when driving is dangerous.

Finally, I am conscious that offroad motorbikes in West Lothian often cause complaints.

I am aiming to tackle this by speaking to landowners, partner agencies and those affected by the antisocial behaviour associated with the use of the bikes.

Over the coming weeks I will be discussing and listening to all options to help prevent this behaviour with the aim of keeping everybody that little bit safer.

In this regard if you have any realistic, affordable ideas on how we can help solve or prevent this problem, please get in touch with me by e-mailing scott.robertson2@ scotland.pnn.police.uk