Plans to make cycle helmets compulsory in the North.

Lumen

Why are Australians fat? The weather's great.

I demand their country back, they're doing it wrong.

Lumen

Via BikeSnob...

Heady freedom as judge agrees helmet laws are unnecessary

tomasrojo

He's a bit late with that news though!

I haven't heard whether there have been been legal ramifications from that court decision. The law still stands anyway, obviously, unless I'm seriously out of the loop on this.

Bottle_of_Smoke

This is a loada pish I go to Uni in NI, been in netherlands the last few months and really gotten into cycling, back at uni next year will be living 4 miles from campus gonna bring my bike up.

Hopefully PSNI won't be dicks about this, can't see myself buying a helmet.

How many people get cycle related head injuries per annum? Jesus its Northern Ireland maybe they shoulda brought in a mandatory bulletproof vest law instead

tomasrojo

Mike McKillen's letter to the MLAs:
http://www.cyclist.ie/2011/03/mikes-letter-to-ni-assembly-on-helmet-law/#more-418

tomasrojo

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/ctc-takes-helmet-fight-to-northern-ireland-assembly

In January the Cyclists (Protective Headgear) Bill was narrowly approved by the Northern Ireland Assembly. It's now being examined by the Environment Committee, which heard evidence presented by CTC campaigns director Roger Geffen, CTC volunteers and Sustrans staff in Derry/Londonderry.

Both organisations oppose the bill, fearing that forcing cyclists to wear helmets will sharply cut the number of people choosing to cycle. At the hearing a local businessman also argued the law would dent cycle sales and even harm tourism.

Just six of the eleven Environment Committee members were present at the meeting and, according to the CTC, some of whom felt such a law was unnecessary as cycling is not a particularly dangerous activity, while other believed such a law would harm public/police relations.

The Environment Committee meets again next week to sign off the evidence it has received. It Assembly members still want the bill to be passed they will have to re-table it after May's Northern Ireland elections.

I think the Local Assembly shuts down for fresh elections on the 28th of March. So maybe this will have to be deferred until the new assembly is elected. Unless the Environment Committee says it sees no problem with the bill. I'm not sure how these things work.

tomasrojo

http://ctc.org.uk/desktopdefault.aspx?tabid=5480

It appears that the Bill will now make no further progress before the Assembly is dissolved in advance of elections in May. CTC will continue to monitor developments in Northern Ireland in case the Bill is resuscitated in the next session.

tomasrojo

From yesterday:
http://road.cc/content/news/33441-northern-irelands-compulsory-helmet-bill-appears-doomed

Roger Geffen of the CTC, who on Wednesday gave evidence to Northern Ireland Assembly in opposition of the proposal, has told road.cc that the Bill will run out of time when the current Assembly is dissolved prior to the May elections. In theory, he said, the Bill could go through before that dissolution on March 24, but it appears that all sides now accept that this will not happen.

The CTC Campaigns Director told us: “Neither the DUP nor Sinn Féin – the two biggest parties in the Assembly - were interested in the Bill. The DUP felt that this would be legislation intruding into areas of life where it doesn’t need to go especially as they accepted that cycling is not a particularly dangerous activity. They also took on board our evidence that compulsory helmet use would seriously undermine cycle sales and the cycle tourist industry.

tomasrojo

I can't see any mention of the implementation of this bill, and the Local Assembly has been dissolved, so I presume it's all over, for now. Headway have to start from scratch with the new Local Assembly.