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Wednesday 4 May 2005

NO MESSIN’ & WRESLIN’ IN SLOUGH

Region & Route:

| Wales & Western: Western

| Wales & Western

| Southern

Network Rail has teamed up with The British Wrestling Association to encourage children and young people in the Slough area to focus on sport and activities rather than playing on railway tracks this summer.  Network Rail’s No Messin’ campaign offers young people alternative, fun ways to spend their time, while educating them about the dangers of the railway. Coaching sessions begin this morning at the Haymill Youth & Community Centre in Burnham, aimed at local schoolchildren and pupils who have been excluded from school.  Qualified coaches from the British Wrestling Association will be running the sessions for the next 6 weeks.  If successful, they will continue into the school holidays. Speaking at the launch, Yvonne Ball from the British Wrestling Association said: “All children want to have fun, particularly with school holidays approaching, but the railway isn’t a safe place to play, particularly in the Slough area.  Hundreds of high speed trains use this stretch of line every day and unlike a car they can’t stop or swerve if someone is on the railway track.  We’ll be showing local kids a fun, healthy alternative in wrestling over the next few weeks.  Hopefully they kids will stay on for the rest of summer and keep away from the tracks” A spokesman for Network Rail added: “Last year there were nearly 100 incidents of rail crime in Slough, Burnham, Taplow and Windsor, making it one of the worst areas in the country.  Every week young people play on the tracks, taking short cuts and risking their lives.  Summer time, especially the school holidays, is a time when such incidents are on the rise and we need to hammer home the railway safety message to prevent a tragedy.  You wouldn’t use a motorway as a short cut, so why the railway?  Our message is clear: No Messin’.”