§ 19. Major Tufton Beamishasked the Minister of Transport what is the object of the large number of posters displayed by his Department in many parts of the country saying "Get Home Safe and Sound"; what has been the cost to the taxpayers involved in this particular poster campaign; and whether he is satisfied that the posters have achieved the desired effect.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport (Mr. James Callaghan)The posters to which the hon. Member refers are part of the national road safety propaganda campaign and have cost about £50,000. I think that the campaign is having a good effect.
§ Major BeamishGenerally we all want to get home safe and sound in any case, and is not this a very good example of quite unnecessary waste of the taxpayers' money and of paper?
§ Mr. CallaghanAs to the point raised by the first part of the question, 125,000 people were killed or injured on the roads between April and November, 1947. As far as paper is concerned, if that is what the hon. and gallant Member is after, he should go and talk to the Conservative Central Office about some of their rather vapid posters which are disfiguring the hoardings.
§ Sir William DarlingCan the hon. Gentleman say how he reasons that persons who will not pay attention to oncoming traffic will read posters?
§ Mr. CallaghanI prefer in this case to rely on statistics, and when a campaign was not being run nine years ago the number of killed and injured on the roads for the same period was 40,000 more.