Graduated licence plans called for by local councillors

Councillors have urged the government to bring in a graduated driving licence scheme for young motorists in the wake of a horror crash earlier this month in which a Blackburn taxi driver was killed and three Bolton teenagers died.

The crash happened in Wigan Road, Bolton, on Sunday, January 11, when a red Seat Leon collided with a Citroen C4 Picasso shortly before one am.

On Thursday night Blackburn with Darwen’s full council meeting unanimously voted to write to transport secretary Heide Alexander call for the new restrictions on newly-qualified young drivers along the lines of a system being introduced in Northern Ireland in October.

Taxi driver and 54-year-old father of four, Masrob Ali, of Ash Street, Blackburn, died as a result of the Bolton collision.

A Graduated Driving Licence would include staged learner periods, zero-alcohol rules, night-time restrictions, passenger limits, and requirements for supervised practice for drivers aged 17 to 23 after they passed their test.

Moving the motion digital boss Councillor Shaukat Hussain said: “This motion is non-political. This is a really serious issue.”

Seconding it his Bastwell and Daisyfield ward colleague Cllr Parwaiz Akhtar said: “I would like to say Masrob Ali was a caring father, a caring husband and a very good community worker.

“I knew him very well because he only lived a couple of streets away from me

“He was a very great loss to the family and the community.

“He wasn’t the first one.

“On August 4 2016 Adam Limbada – a young man , nine years old – collided with a car and that time it was a young driver 25 years old who hit him.”
4BwD councillor for Blackburn Central Terri Mahmood said: “Graduated driving licences is not an abstract policy to me. It’s something that could genuinely change the way young people learn, behave and stay safe on our roads. The principle behind this motion is bigger than politics.”

Blackburn with Darwen’s highways boss Cllr Quesir Mahmood said: “This has been tried and tested in other parts of the world and it has been shown it does have an impact in reducing casualties.”