Hazel Grove's MP has joined calls to end fines for emergency blood bike volunteers. 

In a letter to the Department of Transport, Liberal Democrat Lisa Smart has urged the government to allow emergency blood bikers to travel through bus lanes without being fined – putting them on equal footing with ambulances, fire engines and police vehicles during emergencies. 

Greater Manchester Blood Bikes is the only blood bike charity operating in Greater Manchester, transporting blood, organs, vaccines, and other medical items to emergency scenes and hospitals 24/7, free of charge. 

Decisions about blood bikers and bus lanes are currently left up to individual councils. In Stockport, volunteers may be fined up to £60 for travelling through bus gates while on-duty, but the council warns changing traffic regulations could cost as much as £30,000. 

However, with bikers often crossing different borough areas throughout the day, it is not always clear where they can and cannot drive during an emergency. 

Writing to the Secretary of State for Transport, Smart has called for a nationwide rule for blood bikers to prevent fines in all constituencies. 

"While the Department of Transport says that this could be resolved by local authorities changing the 'traffic regulation orders' which govern bus lanes, this would have to be done on a one-by-one basis, and bikers wouldn't know whether they were in an area where this had been done or not," she wrote. 

"Each one of those changes would cost money, massively multiplying the cost of this change to the public purse, when one single national change would fix this universally, costing less and giving these amazing volunteers certainty." 

She added: "It is simply unfair that these bikes are caught up in the legislation and these volunteers are issued fines when out saving lives. Let's resolve this now, with none of the need for vast expense and a piecemeal approach." 

The letter comes at the same time as a petition launched by Merseyside and Cheshire Blood Bikes volunteer Louise Burns-Lunt, calling for blood bikers to be able to use green emergency lights while on-duty. 

It follows the death of blood biker Andrew Rogers in Wales, who died following a traffic collision in December. 

The petition has since reached of 35,000 signatures, and is also addressed to the Department for Transport. 

While the petition is still awaiting a response, the Nationwide Association of Blood Bikes (NABB) has praised the campaign – but said it has no plans to introduce the measure themselves. 

"At Government level, the position is clear: there will be no special exemptions for Blood Bikes unless the relevant departments are prepared to look at the subject," it said in a statement. 

"At present they do not feel the need to do so, and Blood Bikes are seen as a valuable additional service alongside existing provisions." 

(Blood bike image by Cheesy Mike, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported)

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