V-to-C miscellany, July 1993, July 1993

Twenty-six of the more competitive VSCC members took themselves to Scotland on May 23 to attempt 14 sections in this trial. The Sammy Davis Cup was won by Stewart Gordon’s Austin. First Class Awards went to H Stringer (A7), J Hindle (A7) and R Thwaites (Chrysler), Second Class Awards to B Gray (Austin-JAP), G Toms (Fiat) and A Goding (Morris), Third Class Awards to R Newman (Riley), P Longhurst (Riley) and M Holt (Ford). Henry Stringer took the Campbell Trophy, scoring five points more than the next best performer, Julian Hindle. The non-starters were N Plevin, B Sudjic and M Letham, and J Thring retired.W B

The DoT is very rightly concerned about child deaths in road accidents. It loves to bang on about speed causing crashes but no-one would condone rushing along crowded city streets. What I cannot accept is that TV picture of what the DoT calls a “safe street”. Safe my foot! It has cars parked along both sides of it, so that any vehicle driven along it will have to straddle the centre white line. Just the formula for trouble, with drivers getting the minimum warning if pedestrians step out from behind parked obstructions, while having to scan ahead to see if they need to give way to an approaching car. At any speed, a death trap. In such places parking should be banned, which means the provision of close-at-hand off-road facilities. But will the DoT ever respond? W B