READ ON - FROM KENTONLINE
[http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kol08/article/default.asp?article_id=51010]
The senior politician in charge of Kent's roads has defended a DVD that advises people how to use a town's ring road.
The DVD, which offers tips on how to avoid accidents and overcome confusion in Ashford, has been criticised by some as a waste of money and unnecessary. It cost £15,000 to make.
But Cllr Keith Ferrin (Con), KCC's cabinet member for highways, insisted the DVD would be helpful and said it had been misrepresented in the media.
While Cllr Ferrin was prepared to concede there may have been other ways to get the message across, he insisted there was no harm in producing the video.
He said: "Most of it is not about how to cross the road. That is just a part of it and is designed to give people a bit of information about what to expect.
"This is the first scheme of this kind for Kent. People in Ashford will not have come across a scheme like this before and there is no doubt they need a bit more understanding about how it works."
People should not rush to judgement without having seen all of the DVD first, he added. "They should not take my word for it [but] look at the whole video. If they do, I don’t think they would come to the same conclusion many of those who have taken us to task have."
The county council would have been criticised had it not produced something to give people advice, Cllr Ferrin argued.
"If we had done absolutely nothing at all, we would have been criticised. If it was only about crossing the road, [the criticism] would have been fair comment.
"But the concept of shared space may mean something to some people, but not everyone. We had to try to explain what it was all about."
Asked about complaints over the language used in the DVD, which at one point urges road users to "use all their senses", he conceded: "I might have used different words."
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