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Air pollution highlights need for safer streets

April 2, 2014, 3:14 am
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The recent weather conditions which have deposited dust from the sahara across London have highlighted the chronically bad air quality conditions that we all live with on a day to day basis.

As this report from the BBC highlights, the main cause of air pollution in London is as a result of motor traffic: http://www.live.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-26837256

This is yet another reason why we need to create safer streets, where walking or cycling short distances become the norm.

Our Mayor talks about ‘encouraging people to walk/cycle’ something which our local authorities have been doing for decades. I’m not suggesting that they should stop doing that, but let’s fix the streets so that being able to choose to cycle to the shops doesn’t seem like a life or death decision.

There are a number of petitions that I'm running locally which I'd urge you to support, if you haven't done so already:


Achieving small changes on their own won’t fix everything, but lots of small changes can all add up.
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Progress on 20mph in Wandsworth comes at a slow pace

April 10, 2014, 3:55 am
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The Tooting Labour team are rightly pleased that our council has finally moved forward on consulting residents in Furzedown and Bedford wards on 20mph limits. In Bedford ward, I understand that the Conservative councillors are also supportive, so it's good to see cross-party support for these measures.

However, what I feel is a serious lack of conviction from both parties above is the following. The Labour team talk about their campaign for 20mph in Furzedown in 2007. It is now 2014. If as a party, they had been seriously behind 20mph limits, I do think that 7 years is more than long enough to have campaigned and petitioned borough-wide.

The Conservatives have a similar lack of conviction. Senior party members know that the evidence suggests that most people are supportive of 20mph limits on residential streets when asked. Indeed where their members have 'campaigned' on it, the support has been overwhelmingly positive. Yet the lack of any real desire to make evidence based policy decisions, or indeed ensure that the council adheres to policy guidelines as highlighted in this weeks open letter to the Prime Minister, makes local progress even more challenging.

With the local elections fast approaching, for those looking for real progress, and an evidence based approach to improving the local area, there is a real choice. I'm going to be standing with the Liberal Democrat team as a candidate for councillor in Tooting.

Too many people for too long have had their concerns ignored by both Labour and the Conservatives. We need a strong voice for local people at the council, one which I believe me and my Lib Dem colleagues would be better placed to deliver.
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Why do I do it? Why should the Fishponds trial take place?

April 13, 2014, 6:43 am
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Just gutted for the family of the people involved in that RTC (Road Traffic Collision).

It's a beautiful spring day, I'd been out collecting more signatures for the Tooting High Street petition. Got home, putting their details onto the system I check on twitter, and I see the post above.

One family today will have received a call to go to the hospital for their loved one. It is very likely that the driver of the vehicle will not have been seriously injured. Cars/vans are very good at protecting their occupants. Whilst I don't know the exact details of this RTC, it is likely that the person who has been seriously injured wasn't in a motor vehicle. Whether they were or weren't is kind of irrelevant.

The fact is that at least someone has been seriously injured this morning on Fishponds Road, as a result of someone driving a motor vehicle.

I don't want to be a family member caught up in this, when I know action can be taken to reduce the risk of events like this taking place. How many more people do we need to let get hurt, before we will even just try a different solution?

For all those that oppose the trial scheme, I don't think many would choose to swap places with the family of the seriously injured person today.

I campaign because we can, we should, we must act to reduce the chances of this happening again. We need politicians who don't just stand up and say, 'one crash is one crash too many' and then not act. We need both politicians who recognise the problem, and importantly are prepared to do something about it.

I'll be standing with the Liberal Democrats in Tooting ward in the coming local elections. I think too many people have been hurt on our streets, and nothing of substance has happened to reduce danger for too long. If you agree with me, I hope that you'll be able to support me and my colleagues with your vote so that we can try to reduce the chances of these terrible incidents taking place again.
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Green shoots of spring?

April 23, 2014, 12:15 am
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Easter weekend has come and gone. Whilst walking along Blackshaw Road on Saturday, I saw the car above. Given that the vehicle is damaged from the rear as well as the front, I suspect that some other driver managed to hit this car from behind with some force pushing the car above right over the sign post.

In terms of street vandalism, the owner of the vehicle in the picture no doubt will get an insurance claim. When it comes to fixing the sign post, our council is very unlikely to file an insurance claim to cover the costs. We all will pick up the tab for that, whether we drive or not.



For those of you not local to Tooting, this is how wide the road is at this point:


Then on Monday evening returning from a visit to my family, I saw this on twitter:




Sadly, both Labour and the Conservatives locally seem to take the view that these collisions are a suitable price to pay for the convenience of allowing people to drive everywhere, and anywhere they would like.

With my Lib Dem colleagues we take a different view. We hold the view that a more strategic approach should be taken, one where walking and cycling are included as a serious transport option, and not something to be bolted on (maybe) at the end to fit in around the space for motor vehicles. This means making choices about whether we allow unfettered through access for people to drive along residential streets. It means looking at our main roads and providing true protected space for people to be able to cycle or use a mobility scooter along them.

It seems that some local businesses are already ahead of the game on this. The Castle pub on Tooting High Street has had a refurb, and re-opened last week. This is what they've done with what was car parking space. Now, how's that for some green shoots of spring?


As an aside, The Selkirk pub has a lovely beer garden too.
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Tooting Safari seeking 'Space for Cycling'

April 26, 2014, 4:02 am
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Really great to see both local residents and Tooting businesses supporting space4cycling.org

See if you can recognise where these photos were taken, some aren't the best quality, but you have to grab your chance to take the picture!






















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Local elections - Imprint

April 27, 2014, 1:45 am
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As I'm standing as a candidate to be a councillor for Tooting ward with the Liberal Democrats in the local elections on the 22nd May, I'm legally required to put this imprint on the site. For all election related posts, they are promoted & published by Adrian Smith on behalf of Jon Irwin all at 23a Kettering Street, SW16 6QA.
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Elegant, simple & effective - Merton safe streets

April 29, 2014, 8:51 am
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Earlier today I dropped my Brompton into A W Cycles in SW19 (too lazy to change flat on rear myself) and I noticed that Merton Council are updating the older solution they had in place to stop rat-running and create a safer street environment.


This is an example of what they have had in place for a long time now, unsightly, but effective.

Here is the 2014 edition/look which achieves the same result:


The slimline bollards just behind the Mum and her child in the picture above, are a little harder to see in the picture below. However, if you look closely you can see they are set back from the main road. This allows for deliveries, and people to park cars to visit local businesses. 


In the pictures below, we have what I'm sure will be in time, raised flower beds / planters. A nice looking bottleneck to the end of a residential street.












For those who think that my ideas to trial solutions which will similarly block streets off in Tooting are fool hardy or won't work why don't you take a look just down the road. Perhaps ask some of the people who live on those streets how they find driving to the shops etc.

Thankfully, we don't need to look very far to see some high quality examples of how our streets can be improved. We only need to take 10 mins on the 57 bus from Tooting Broadway, or a walk or ride on your bike towards Abbey Mills to see what already exists.

Fingers crossed, that whoever gets elected in the coming local elections, they will recognise that a lot of people would like Wandsworth Council to trial out this type of street design.

I hope that together with my Lib Dem colleagues we might be lucky enough to represent Tooting. If so, we'll be able to speed up the roll-out of these trials and hopefully quickly make a significant improvement to the lives of everyone living in Tooting.
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Will you support me, again?

May 4, 2014, 12:05 pm
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Yes, this is party political, but let me explain.

If you follow this blog or my twitter feed, you'll already know that I'm standing as a candidate for the Lib Dems in Tooting. On Saturday Brian Paddick came down to join me and my team door knocking around the ward.

Leaving party politics aside, you know I really want safer streets in Tooting. I've been campaigning for it through local groups for years now. One of the main motivations for me to stand, was the frustration at the very real blocks that both local Labour councillors and Conservative ones have put in the way of real progress to make a real difference to our streets.

So, whatever your party affiliation, if you share my desire to see real change to make the streets of Tooting safer sooner, then can you lend me your vote? We've had over 2200 people sign a bunch of safer streets petitions since last September. Neither Labour or the Conservatives have backed them. No wonder that people don't believe politicians when they say they support making the streets safer, but then the ones we've had representing us haven't delivered any meaningful change for years.

I'd really appreciate it, and I promise if elected I'll deliver on making our streets safer for everyone.

Let me know via this form.
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Thank you & don't forget to vote

May 21, 2014, 1:26 am
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What a journey this local election campaign has been.

It has been a massive learning curve for me and my team, but I'm really proud of everything that we have achieved.

Whoever the people of Tooting choose to vote for tomorrow, or have already done so with their postal votes, I believe we have made a big contribution to debates locally about creating safer streets, standing up for local people, cleaning up Tooting and boosting local business.

With over 2200 signatures on a range of our safer streets petitions collected since September, I know it's not just me who can see the issues on our local streets. It is easy to point the finger at problems. The real challenge is how to fix them.

I don't believe that disagreements on the perfect solution should mean that we don't even try. For too many years that has been the case. Creating safer streets has many benefits, and if you haven't seen this video link before, then I'd highly recommend you watch it. Only 6 mins of your time:

 
If the Youtube link doesn't work you can see it via this link instead: http://www.streetfilms.org/revisiting-donald-appleyards-livable-streets/

If you live locally, I hope that I and my team will be able to count on your vote. Come what may after the count, rest assured, we will raise the issues you've mentioned to us on the doorstep with council officers, and we will continue to champion Tooting working hard to improve it for everyone whichever political party you choose to vote for.


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The Prince and his toothache

May 29, 2014, 5:57 am
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Having read the last edition of the Transition Free Press, it reminded me of the importance of story telling in the context of Transitioning, and how we discuss change.

With this in mind, and my recent safer streets campaigns in Tooting the following story came to mind.

As with many fairy tales, it starts in a familiar fashion:

Once upon a time in a magical kingdom lived a prince who reigned over all he saw. He was blessed with a kingdom of abundant food, the people lived in peace, and life was full of happiness for his subjects.

However, the prince had one weakness, he had a very sweet tooth. Living in this land of plenty and such a wonderful choice of food always on offer, including pastries, cakes, tarts and sweet drinks.

Before long the prince's sweet tooth was causing him problems. Fortunately he had access to wonderful dentists, and along he went for a visit.

The dentist welcomed the prince into his practise, and went about inspecting the prince's teeth.

"Oh dear," exclaimed the dentist, "this really doesn't look too good!"

The dentist went on to treat the prince's teeth as best he could. However, knowing that the real cause of the problems was the sweet tooth that the prince has, he recommended that the prince reduce the amount of sweet foods and drinks he was consuming.

The Prince having had his teeth seen to and 'fixed' for the time-being, soon forgot about his toothache and the advice given to him by the dentist.

Before long the toothache returned, and another visit to the dentist followed. This cycle repeated, until the prince grew tired of listening to the dentist. The toothache had become permanent, and the prince could no longer remember what life was like beforehand.

The toothache made for a grumpy prince who could no longer see the beauty in and around him. However, the prince did have a council of wise men who all had teeth. So, as the advice of the dentist wasn't to the prince's liking, he asked his wise men what would they recommend. The wise men knew that the real solution was that proposed by the dentist, they also knew that the prince didn't want to hear that solution.

Years passed with different ideas being tried. The wise men, after all, had a lot of teeth between them, surely they would know an answer. There was trouble now brewing in the kingdom. As people looked up to the prince, they too had chosen to ignore the advice of the dentist, and many more people were suffering with toothache.

One day a traveller was visiting from a similar kingdom, and saw the terrible suffering that these people were living with. The traveller was puzzled, as in almost every respect this kingdom was identical to the one he had come from. The difference was that his prince had listened to the dentist. The traveller had heard the tales of how all the different ideas had been tried (except that recommended by the dentist), and he came up with an idea.

He sought an audience with the Prince, claiming to be able to solve the toothache once and for all. To do so, the Prince would need to trust him, and do something that had never been done before.

The Prince after years of having suffered, and having seen his people suffered, acquiesced to the traveller's demands. The traveller asked the Prince to give the Dentist's solution a chance, to try it for a short period of time. After all, every other 'solution' had already been tried, so what did the Prince have to lose?

The trial was a fantastic success, and the Prince and his subjects were able to rejoice and enjoy the fruits of their kingdom once more and they lived happily ever after.

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The Prince represents us, our communities, his toothache the problems that motor traffic dominance presents us, the Dentist our highways engineers with evidence based solutions, and the wise men our politicians listening to the demands of the Prince whilst often ignoring the advice of the Dentist.

Hope you enjoyed the story. If anyone fancies doing a little picture to go along with it do drop me a line.
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Bikehangars coming to Wandsworth for Xmas!

June 11, 2014, 9:15 am
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Soon to be up on Wandsworth's Council website (link to follow). The Bikehangars which are becoming more and more common in neighbouring Lambeth are due to make a start on Wandsworth's streets hopefully before Christmas!

An initial 10 will be placed around the borough in locations where there is greatest demand. Over 200 people have already registered their interest via http://www.cyclehoop.com/rentals/, and their details have been passed to the council for consideration.

If you really, really would like to have one on your street then ask any of your cycling neighbours to register via the link above, but also to email highwaysconsultancy@wandsworth.gov.uk with your address, and a brief explanation why this would be so useful.

Would also do no harm to copy in your newly elected/re-elected councillors, so that they are aware of this need/demand from their residents. Not sure who your councillors are, then follow this link and you can get their email addresses.
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Frustration, dismay, but more motivated than ever

June 24, 2014, 10:57 pm
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Yesterday saw the publication of paper 14-371 which refers to the outcome of the consultation for the proposed trial on the Fishponds road area. Download the paper here

The headlines are:
399 responses were received (17% of households canvassed) with 29% supporting (115) and 64% opposed (257)
Officers recommend that no further action be taken.

Looking into the details what can we learn?

Executive asked for a 40% minimum response rate to deem the consultation effective.
Only Tooting and Furzedown wards had a turnout in the recent local elections which were the same day as the European elections of over 40%. Does this mean that the local elections weren't effective in most of the borough? Is it realistic for the executive to set a target response rate for a consultation higher than the average turnout for local elections? See ward by ward turnout here

Concerns from local residents, 91 people thought that they would increase congestion and delays, 38 people thought that there must be a better way, 9 people suggested a one-way system for Broadwater road, and 6 flagged a 20mph limit.
If we total these comments up as people who opposed the scheme, but agree that there is a problem, we have 144 people. If we can view those people as wanting the problem fixed the numbers would look like this: 259 wanting problem fixed - 113 wanting nothing to be done.

If the committee chooses to take no action, then this doesn't bode well for progress in Wandsworth for the next four years. This consultation was the fourth in 12 years as a result of other groups, and me petitioning calling on our council to act. Our council has monitored traffic levels in the area and found them to be over and above levels which are fit for residential streets.

I'm quite happy for a different approach to be advocated by the council to fix what is a recognised problem.

The important questions in terms of putting in place solutions are:

Who do we ask to come up with solutions?
If the local community doesn't like the look of the solutions, (because they don't believe they will work, even if they are evidence-based), do we just shrug our shoulders and do nothing?

The other week I wrote a fairy tale about this - The Prince and his toothache - well worth a gander if you haven't looked at it already.

I'm due be a father in September. I want my child to be able to grow up in a community where they are able to safely cycle to school. Where as a family we don't need to share horror stories about how someone's 'need' to not 'wait' behind me or my wife on our bikes has resulted in them almost killing us.

Other parts of London have successfully made huge changes to their street environment to the wider benefit of all members of their local communities. I'm more determined than ever to ensure that our community can benefit too, but I really will need your help.

Do get in touch if you live locally, and share my desire to see a better neighbourhood.
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Labour tried to silence me!

July 6, 2014, 1:54 am
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This week has been a busy one. I hope that what took place on Tuesday evening won't prevent progress on what I believe to be a widely shared aspiration to create safer streets.

The local Labour party (their representatives on the committee) voted to silence me, and by extension the hundreds of people who have supported my petitions. They singled me out, as they didn't choose to try to stop the other deputations who wanted to speak.

You can view the decisions made by the committee here.

I went along to speak on papers 14-371 and 14-379. The local elections have come and gone. However, it seems clear from the actions of the Labour team, that I will really need more help from local people to get further progress on our streets.

The Fishponds scheme was discussed, and whilst I fully accept that local people responded negatively to the consultation (not too surprising given the wording of it), the recommendations from the council is to do nothing. Neither Labour, nor the Conservatives (as far as I'm aware) have been prepared to put forward any proposals to try to fix what is a widely acknowledged problem with traffic in the local area.

I live in hope that the wide spread goal of creating safer streets will mean that people of differing political persuasions can work together. However, if the Labour team are not prepared to listen to differing points of view, it is difficult to see exactly how positive consensual progress can be made.

Sticking our heads in the sand and hoping that long standing problems will go away doesn't work. It isn't easy to put solutions in place, but the longer we leave them, the greater the cost to our community.

If you would like to join me and help campaign do get in touch.
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Welham Road - Dead space, or very much alive?

July 31, 2014, 2:01 am
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This morning I was heading off to a meeting, and cycled along Welham Road. I was running a bit late, so wasn't able to take the pictures on the way without cars parked on the street.

Last year there was a public meeting discussing the schools plans to 'make better use' of Welham road and turn 'dead space' into a 'more positive community asset'. The proposals as were circulated would result in limiting access for people on foot, bike or using mobility aids to travel along the road.

Do you think this could happen in a 'dead space'? Do you see this very often on residential streets that have don't have controlled motorised access, or restrict through access for motor vehicles?






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Decaying van rusting to bits in the street

August 17, 2014, 6:34 am
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It's coming up for two years since I first came to view the property that is now my home in Furzedown. Fairly confident betting that it's been a little longer that this van has been parked on my street.

Thanks to the pro-active nature of the Labour team in Tooting & Furzedown that represent us locally I'm left wondering if they are waiting for the van to naturally decay and then claim that it's as a result of their work!

Another issue on Mitcham Lane is the cars that are regularly parked there for sale, clearly not private re-sellers. If local people keep on voting Labour, we can't be surprised if we keep the same problems.

A Controlled Parking Zone (CPZ) would probably help. Even though the lead councillor locally, Cllr Leonie Cooper, is co-chair of SERA (Labour's environmental group), you would have thought that a CPZ might have already been put in place given how long she has been a councillor. Doesn't really say much for her local action/credentials on the environment.

Given the lack of action shown by Labour, with my Lib Dem colleagues we are working to tackle issues such as this. If you'd like to get involved and help out do get in touch.




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Fishponds - a different take on the consultation responses

August 25, 2014, 8:35 am
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The whole Fishponds saga for me is a microcosm of the political challenges that we face as a community if we genuinely wish to see progress. Taken at face value the responses from the consultation seemed to give an overwhelming rejection of the trial approach which my Lib Dem colleagues and I were advocating.

There is cross party consensus that there is a problem, the challenge is doing anything to actually fix it. The pie chart shown above is from the data provided from the consultation (I put in an FOI request to get the breakdown - view pdf here) . I've added an extra layer, which broadly categorises the comments into people who agree there is a problem, those who think there isn't one, those who are undecided, and people using the consultation to flag other issues.

It is worth, in my view, re-visiting part of the conclusion made by the highway engineers/officers who wrote report 13-741:

There is a possibility that there will be a increase in traffic flows in some residential roads due to transfer of traffic on account of the point closures, but this will be offset by the forecasted reduction in traffic over the larger area.
In my view, the officers are stating that resident concerns of an increase in traffic are unlikely to be realised because of the forecasted reduction in traffic over the larger area.

Labour and Conservative councillors on the committee were unanimous in their view that nothing more should be done here in supporting the recommendations in paper 14-371. I should also add, that in my view officers made exactly the right recommendation. Officers work in a political environment where they need to respond to the councillors who are elected to represent us.

It does beg the question, can local people really be too surprised if long standing problems aren't fixed when neither of the two elected parties are prepared to call for any real action? This was the 4th consultation for the same problem in 12 years. No action has been suggested to date (that I'm aware of) by either of the elected parties to resolve this.

With my Lib Dem colleagues we will continue to work hard to get action to fix long standing local problems. That frustration was what led me to stand in the local elections. Officers frequently know how to fix local issues, but all too often our politicians get in the way.

If you are tired and frustrated by the lack of any real action do get in touch. There is a group of people locally who really do want to make a difference. I hope that in future elections people will be able to scrutinise the record of action, or lack thereof, to sort out local problems by those political groups who currently represent us. Maybe in the future we'll have a few more people supporting the Lib Dems locally, and we can really start to fix some of these issues.
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Back to school - the school run - a little plea

August 29, 2014, 1:57 am
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Francis Hirzel cycles to school daily (Gabriel Szabo/Guzelian)
from Independent article linked below

As the start of the school year is only just around the corner, a little plea. 

A growing number of children would like to cycle to school and indeed are. For some it will be their first time cycling regularly on our roads. Please give our young people who are starting to cycle some space, and be considerate if they wobble or make what may seem to be an erratic decision. 

We all make mistakes, particularly when doing something new for the first time. It makes it even more important for those who have to drive their children to school that you take extra care over the next couple of weeks. 

The same goes incidentally for taking care around adults on bikes too. 

Thanks for reading, and hope that it's a good start to the new school year for everyone!
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Why Tooting should support TfL's proposals for new Cycle Superhighways

September 7, 2014, 12:52 am
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You may have heard the news this week that Transport for London have launched two new consultations for a North-South and East-West cycle superhighways that will run through the centre of London.

Blackfriars Road visualisation - North-South


Victoria Embankment visualisation - East-West
You can, and should respond supporting these consultations on these links:


For sure there are some details which could be improved as with any major project, but the core thrust of what could be will be a game changer.

Local impact?

You may be thinking if you live in and around Tooting / Balham, this is all quite nice, but actually I don't really go into the centre of town so this doesn't really affect me.

It does for the following reasons. A few years ago I proposed radical changes to Balham High Road. The Mayor announced funding for TfL to work on it this spring. Looking at some of the details in the Blackfriars Road visualisation gives me a lot of hope that the consultation for Balham High Road next year will be of similar quality.

Tooting High Street and Upper Tooting Road are gridlocked almost every weekend. Earlier this year, with the local Lib Dem team as part of the local elections, we got over 700 signatures on a petition (including paper signatures) calling on the Mayor to make Tooting High Street safe for all.

The proposals for the centre of town show everyone that not only is TfL is capable of doing high quality street design. It also shows that campaigning does work. These proposals wouldn't exist without the efforts of campaigners across London and the London Cycling Campaign.

Will it slow down traffic?

Experience from New York suggests that it won't.


Next steps

Please support the consultations. There are organisations and individuals who don't think that what has been proposed will work, or that it is needed or that people deserve it.

I'd like my children to be able to grow up in a London where as a family we can all ride into the centre of town and the only worries we might have would be if it's going to rain.

PS - I'd also add that the proposals to deal with rat-running on/around the Fishponds Road area, in my view are part of the wider solution to improving our streets. Current views from our elected representatives is that doing nothing is acceptable.
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A chat with Dan from Putney Social

September 14, 2014, 2:23 am
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Last weekend I popped down to Putney and caught up with Dan who runs Putney Social.


Since then London Cycling Campaign have posted this, a quick way for you to show your support for their latest proposals for new Cycle Superhighways in the centre of town.


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Inactivity is killing us (Political & Physical)

September 16, 2014, 5:49 am
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Public Health England is currently consulting on 'Everybody Active, Every Day':
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/everybody-active-every-day

An extract from the first document (An evidence based approach to physical activity) on the link above:


Inactivity is killing us 
Physical inactivity is responsible for 1 in 6 (17%) of deaths in the UK. This makes it as dangerous as smoking. Yet over a quarter of us are still inactive, failing to achieve a minimum of 30 minutes of activity a week, and in some minority communities this falls to only one in ten adults. Whilst measurement differences limit direct comparisons, international studies using a single methodology consistently demonstrate that we lag behind most other similar countries in reducing physical inactivity.

In Tooting as you can read from my previous post about Fishponds, and the unanimous decision to do nothing by Labour and Conservative councillors on a recognised problem. The pie chart above highlights that there is a consensus that there is a problem, just a difference of opinion on how to fix it. 

The second document (Implementation & Evidence Guide) in the consultation on 'Everybody Active, Every Day' has the following extract (pg 9):


Road transport contributes to a number of health hazards and health inequalities, causing air pollution, noise and injuries, particularly in urban areas. More disadvantaged areas tend to have a higher density of roads and traffic. Pedestrians, cyclists, and users of other modes of transport that involve physical activity need the highest priority when developing or maintaining streets and roads. This can mean re-allocation of road space to support walking and cycling; restricting motor vehicle access; introducing road-user charging and traffic-calming schemes; and creating create safe routes to schools. Such policy changes have prompted substantial shifts from car transport to walking and cycling. 

Other boroughs of the same political colours representing Wandsworth today are cracking on with making these necessary changes happen. Why is it that both parties, Labour and Conservatives, locally seem so reticent to engage with the evidence base for the benefit of all? 


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