The Wee Vine

SNP MSP for the Stirling Constituency Bruce Crawford and the Stirling Council Environment Convener Cllr Jim Thomson have met with Helen Wilson of Kippen Community Council and Polly Douglas of Kippen Primary Parent Council, to discuss the local campaign for speed limits throughout the village to be reduced to 20mph.

Mr Crawford then met with Kippen Primary P7s, who have been running their own campaign for speed limit reduction, with their teacher Mrs Stone.

Councillor Thomson confirmed that the SNP Group on Stirling Council supports 20mph zones in communities where there is a want and a need for it and highlighted that there is £40,000 available in this year’s local Budget to invest in ground work for reducing speed limits in residential areas.

Pending the expressed support from local groups such as the Community Council, Parent Council and the Toddler’s Group, the Council will take into consideration what work can be carried out to reduce speed limits in the village under the current Budget.

Stirling Council have carried out a survey on traffic in the village, following a letter from Mr Crawford, calling for the local authority to look into introducing 20mph throughout Kippen.

The findings of the survey are:

By far the majority of traffic comes from cars, whose behaviour would be most affected by a change in speed limit.

The average speed of traffic is above the 30mph speed limit.

There’s a peak in traffic on a Saturday – indicating that the 20mph during start and finish times at school just isn’t going far enough.

Commenting, Bruce Crawford MSP said:

“I fully support the efforts of the local community, including the Community Council, the Parent Council and the superb work that Primary 7 at Kippen Primary have been doing with Mrs Stone to campaign on this issue.

“I am pleased that the SNP Partnership Administration on Stirling Council has committed funding to delivering 20mph zones, and it is clear that there is a desire within the local community to have this implemented throughout Kippen.

“The meetings I had with various local goups were very positive and I look forward to supporting the Kippen community throughout the next stages of this campaign.

“I must make special mention of the Kippen Primary P7s, who have shown incredible determination and have run a fantastic campaign themselves. Raising awareness of this issue has got the local community to this point and, as they prepare themselves to leave Primary School to begin High School after the summer, they should be very proud of all they have achieved.”

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In Westminster, I am a member of the cross- party Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee. Consumers’ energy bills are one of the most important issues we are dealing with, which is why   this new legislation, which will introduce an energy price cap for domestic energy supplies, is so important. The committee reported last month that it was overwhelmingly in support of this policy. The Bill will require the regulator (OfGEM) to introduce a price cap for all customers, which would run until 2020, with provision to be extended if needed. There are already caps in place for those customers on pre-payment meters and for certain vulnerable groups, this would now introduce a cap on the price any customer would pay if they were on a variable or default tariff.  There will be opportunities for Green Energy tariffs to be exempted from the cap to ensure they can be made available. Although switching suppliers is encouraged, a recent report stated that only 18% of customers do so on a regular basis and that many customers remain with the ‘Big 6’ energy companies, despite there now being over sixty suppliers operating. We must make it far easier to switch between suppliers. This is an important opportunity to stop many customers from paying a lot more than they need to and ensure we have a consumer led marketplace. I will continue to support this legislation as it progresses through Parliament.

John Bennett

Communications Officer for Stephen Kerr MP