“I’ve seen children hit by a bus and they’ve bounced up and asked for a milkshake”: Active travel campaigners blast councillor’s “reckless, flippant” road safety comments during 20mph debate

A councillor who supported the controversial reopening of a rat-run bridge to motor traffic has come under fire and faced calls to apologise from active travel and road safety campaigners after claiming that children who are struck by motorists travelling at 30mph “don’t” die, and that she’s “seen children hit by a bus and they’ve bounced up and asked for a milkshake”.

Conservative councillor Bobbie Dove’s comments – described as “reckless and flippant” by RoadPeace – were made during a recent debate at Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole (BCP) Council concerning the proposed implementation of widespread 20mph speed limits in built-up areas throughout the conurbation.

In January, as reported on road.cc, the deputy leader of Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole (BCP) Council announced that it was the local authority’s “intention” to introduce a “default” 20mph limit on residential streets, similar to the widespread implementation of lowered speed limits in Wales last autumn.

The announcement came three months after the Liberal Democrat-controlled council’s environment portfolio holder Andy Hadley pledged that a full consultation would take place before a decision was made on the introduction of the 20mph zones, which deputy leader Millie Earl said would be “beneficial to people walking, wheeling, and cycling and… benefit public health and air quality”.

> “Any road which isn’t safe for pedestrians and cyclists should be 20mph”: Cycling Rebellion says speed limit plan “doesn’t go far enough”, as council urged to “be brave” and introduce default 20mph zones

However, a report by BCP Council officers published at the end of February raised concerns about the council’s ambitions to implement the reduced speed limit on all urban residential roads and high streets, noting that, “although desirable”, a “blanket” 20mph limit would cost more than £300m to introduce.

Instead, the council officers advised that the local authority should prioritise which roads will be subject to the lowered limit, based on how dangerous they are perceived to be or the number of collisions or serious injuries which have occurred on them in recent years, a selective policy criticised by local cycling campaigners as “not tenable” and presenting a “silly” barrier to progress.

While the new report was condemned by active travel campaigners, at a meeting of BCP Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Board, Councillor Bobbie Dove – while asserting that she “believes passionately” in ensuring that roads are safe – questioned the report’s call for lowered speed limits and the correlation between road safety and 20mph zones.

I just had to clip this and post it. She actually does say this. “I’ve seen children hit by a bus and they’ve bounced up and asked if they could have a milkshake please” https://t.co/xgl6mTvjZ8 pic.twitter.com/XBVPwLjHJB

— Joanna Papageorgiou (@stillawake) March 6, 2024

“Councillor [Oliver] Walters was very emphatic that if a child is hit at 30mph they will die. They don’t,” she said during the meeting.

“I’ve seen children being hit by a bus, and they’ve bounced up and they’ve asked if they could have a milkshake, please.

“We have to be really careful in what this report is saying, why it is saying it, and what is the question that we want answered. We want our roads safer – is it 20mph? Well, it absolutely isn’t.”

> “We warned that voting for these parties would lead to anti-car measures”: 20mph speed limit plan to “really encourage more cycle journeys” slammed as “nuts” and “extremely worrying”

Councillor Dove’s claims have been roundly condemned on social media since the meeting.

RoadPeace, the UK’s national charity for road crash victims, wrote on X/Twitter: “We’re horrified by these reckless and flippant comments.

“BCP Council, please tell us how you will address this? This clip, with your branding on it, is highly damaging. Shockingly, Councillor Dove is the chair of your Children’s Services Committee.

“Road traffic collisions are the leading cause of death among children and young people aged 5-29 years. In the event of a crash, the higher the speed, the higher the injury severity. The frequency of crashes increases with the speed of traffic.”

> "Far more pleasant for walkers and cyclists": 20mph speed limit analysis hailed "astonishing", with drivers' journeys just 45 seconds longer

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat council leader Vikki Slade said that Dove’s comments were “outrageous and she needs to apologise”, while Green Party councillor Joe Salmon also called on Conservative group leader Phil Broadhead to “have a word” with his colleague.

“She is on another planet here and really needs to engage with the research on road safety if she wants to have an opinion,” he said.

One local active travel campaigner told road.cc that Dove’s comments were “an absolute joke” and claimed that the councillor had “acted as a stooge” during the then-Conservative led council’s successful, and highly controversial, attempt to reopen a narrow road underneath a railway bridge in Poole to motor vehicles in 2021.

> Victory for cyclists and walkers in legal challenge to council decision to reopen narrow bridge to motor traffic

Commonly used as a rat-run by drivers, Keyhole Bridge in Poole Park was closed to drivers under an experimental traffic restriction order (ETRO) in 2020 to improve active travel access and provide a safe route for people on bikes or on foot during the Covid pandemic.

However, over the course of the following two years, the then-newly installed Conservative-led administration ignored two public consultations (one of which was mandated by the High Court following a judicial review brought by local campaigners), showing the vast majority of residents supported the extremely narrow road’s permanent closure, by choosing to reopen the underpass to motor traffic.

Launching a legal action in March last year, Cycling UK described the council’s decision as “unlawful”, arguing that it was based on flawed economic analysis and failed to take into account statutory guidance issued to highway authorities under the Network Management Act 2004, while also posing a danger to vulnerable road users.

In December, Cycling UK announced that BCP Council had, in the wake of the charity’s legal challenge, accepted that it had acted unlawfully when reopening the bridge in March 2021 and agreed to pay Cycling UK’s legal costs.

> Park rat-run to remain closed to drivers to promote cycling, following trial made controversial by "vocal minority who drive straight through the park"

And now, after another recent council trial designed to prevent rat-running and promote cycling in Poole Park was vehemently opposed by a “vocal minority” of “car drivers who drive straight through the park”, it now appears that it’s the turn of 20mph speed limits to step forward as the latest active travel and road safety controversy to hit BCP Council.

The local authority’s attempt to introduce a “default” 20mph speed limit in residential areas has so far been stymied by claimed costs of £300m and Dorset Police’s belief that it “will not be able to supply additional resources to monitor and enforce” any speed reduction plan. However, the police said that it would support a 20mph zone on streets where “clear evidence” indicates that the scheme would lead to a fall in collisions.

The recent report to the council, discussed in such inflammatory terms by Councillor Dove, also noted that by introducing a default 20mph limit, some motorists will believe that their freedoms are being “compromised”.

“The profile of people who proportionately drive more – men, middle aged groups, people without a disability, white British, heterosexuals and Christians – will generally consider their freedoms associated with driving are being compromised, though individual views may vary,” the report said.