New group looks to promote river safety in Shrewsbury

A new multi-agency group set up to help promote and improve safety along the River Severn in Shrewsbury has met for the first time.  The group includes representatives from Shropshire Council, police, fire service, ambulance service and Environment Agency.

Initially the group will be looking at:

• The outstanding long-term actions highlighted for consideration in the River Severn risk assessment report that was recently prepared for Shropshire Council.
• The developing of campaigns highlighting dangers of the river, particularly for those who have been drinking and are on their own.
• Gathering accurate information about incidents, to identify any ‘hotspots’ or ‘hot premises’ where future activity could or should be focussed.

The group is due to meet once every three months.  The first meeting was chaired by the police, but in future meetings will be chaired by Shropshire Council.

The setting up of the Safety Group is the latest in a long line of measures aimed at improving safety along the River Severn, and follows a recent visit to York by council and police officers.

Tim Sneddon, head of environmental maintenance with Shropshire Council, said:

“As part of a review of safety along the river we recently visited York, who had a good reputation for the work they had done when they experienced similar problems to the ones we now have in Shrewsbury.  We found that, through our recent work, we were doing most of the things they had done and often more.  One of the ideas we did bring back was to set up a River Severn Safety Group which will meet to specifically consider safety.

“We’ve also done many physical things to increase safety along the riverside such as installing new lifebuoys, and we’re now looking at longer-term measures.  These include some improvements to existing barriers, some limited additional new safety barriers and provision of ladders to assist getting out of the water should someone fall in.

“I have now had a productive meeting with the Coroner and Chief Inspector and am due to take a walk down the tow path with them later this month to assess the work that has been carried out so far and what else we might be doing.”

Councillor Martin Taylor-Smith, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for transport and IT, said:

“The land alongside the river is managed by various different landowners and the council, police, fire service and other partners are all working together to raise awareness of the dangers of the river as well as introducing measures to make it safer. This new group will enable all these organisations to work more closely together to improve and promote river safety.”

Before Christmas, Shropshire Partnership ran a safer drinking “how are you getting home?” awareness campaign, which will be repeated in the summer.

The police also led on a recent scheme called “reunite”, where town centre door staff monitored those leaving their premises and made sure they had arrangements for getting home safely. This has had a very positive impact, helping a number of vulnerable people get home safely.