The Mover December 2012

14 The Mover ● December 2012 ● www.themover.co.ukNEWS: UKPound Gatesis Santa ClausCelebrating its 25th year inbusiness, charteredinsurance brokers PoundGates, are challenging 25staff to cycle 25 milesdressed as Santa, with atarget of raising over£5,000 for East Anglia’sChildren’s Hospices (EACH).The event will be heldon 9 December,cycling a 25 mileroute around Ipswich,Suffolk, stopping at the EACHTreehouse hospice to deliverpresents for the children beforereturning to their head office,St Vincent House.EACH support families andcare for children and youngpeople with life-threateningconditions across the East ofEngland. They provide care andsupport wherever the familywishes – in families’ own homes,in the community or at one oftheir hospices.Pound Gates aim is to raise£5,000 through personal andcorporate donations which willfund family and bereavementsupport sessions for over 300families.Marketing Manager, RobertAppleton commented, “Everyyear we participate in a largecharitable event, this year wewanted this to align to our25th anniversary. We have hada great response from our staffeager to participate in eithercycling, fund raising orsupporting our riders. 2013 isall set to be a great year forPound Gates celebratingsuccess over the last 25 yearsand looking forward to thenext 25.”● For more information visit:www.justgiving.com/santacycle.● Urgent action is required over fuel duty, according to a report commissioned by the RHA.FairFuelUK in talks withChief Treasury SecretaryOn 29 October the FairFuelUK campaigngroup, together with RHA Chief ExecutiveGeoff Dunning, met in London for discussionswith Chief Secretary to the Treasury, DannyAlexander and his team to discuss next year’sproposed 3ppl increase in fuel duty.“ The Minister listenedcarefully to what we had tosay,” said RHA ChiefExecutive Geoff Dunning.“He was also pleased to receive acopy of the report by the NationalInstitute of Economic and SocialResearch, commissioned by the RHA,which pulls no punches regardingthe case for urgent action over fuelduty.”The report clearly states that a 3pplduty rise in January will:• Cut 35,000 jobs;• Cut growth by 0.1%;• Will improve the fiscal deficit byonly £880 million;• Every household will feel an evengreat strain on their finances;• The Bank of England could beforced to raise interest rates earlierthan currently expected.However, if the contents of theRHA-funded report are acted upon,a fuel duty cut of 3ppl would:• Create 70,00 jobs;• Boost the economy by 0.2% -● Danny Alexander.“We left the Treasuryteam in no doubt asto the plight of boththe motorist and thehaulier and it is nowvital that we see astop to an increasein January ...”Geoff Dunningessential at a time when financialgrowth is so critical;• Reduce the fiscal position by£1.8billion – significantly less thatthe £3 billion the Treasury wouldexpect.“We left the Treasury team in nodoubt as to the plight of both themotorist and the haulier and it isnow vital that we see a stop to anincrease in January,” Geoff Dunningcontinued. “We made our caseclearly, and honestly. To have theadditional backing of a professionalreport that presents a firm andpositive case to address fuel dutyas a matter of extreme urgencystrengthens our case for action.”Lightereveningswouldsave livesThe Institute of AdvancedMotorists (IAM) is calling forchanges to British SummerTime (BST), to give us moredaylight hours in the evening.Pushing the British time zoneforward by an hour in bothwinter and summer wouldmean lighter evenings, and would,according to IAM, save lives. Apparentlythere are more accidents in the eveningthan in the morning. Figures from theDepartment for Transport show thatchanging the daylight hours couldprevent about 80 deaths and at least200 serious injuries on our roads eachyear. It would also align the hours ofdaylight to the waking and workinghours of the vast majority of thepopulation.Road casualty rates increase withthe arrival of darker evenings. In2011:• The number of pedestrians killed orseriously injured in November was 14%more than the monthly average;• The number of cyclist casualties was5% higher;• The rate of motorcycle casualtiesper vehicle mile was 28% higher.IAM Chief Executive Simon Best said:“Making evenings lighter would savelives. While an extra hour of daylightwould help to make the commutehome much safer for all road users;children, cyclists and motorcyclistswould benefit most. We want to see athree-year trial of the new daylightsystem. If the trial period proves thenew daylight hours have a positiveeffect on road safety, it is clear that itis the system we should keep. Withconvincing evidence of the potentialbenefits, it is only right that we pilot anew system.”Editor’s noteThis also means that the UK would beon the same time zone as the rest ofEurope. Not a bad idea but how do youfancy being left in the dark until9.00am on winter mornings?