About three or four years ago I made a request that all Southwark street cleaning and rubbish vehicles have side guards. Side guards stop pedestrians and cyclists being dragged under the rear wheels during collisions and being killed or very seriously injured.

This didn’t prove possible for the rubbish trucks as they were about to become the responsibility of Veolia under a PFI deal. Apparently the Government dept at the time could’nt cope with such clauses in a waste PFI contract.

However I was promised that the next purchases for Southwark Councils small fleet of lorries that collect rubbish from street bins would consider having such side guards. On Saturday I spotted the first one with side guards. A Mercedes Sprinter 310 registration WN10 AHL. One very happy ex.Cycle Champion.

I’m making enquiries and making a big thank you to council officers for making this happen.

Next step will be to seek Veolia to voluntarily specify side guards on all new vehicles they purchase making Southwark even safer.