Drivewise helps to improve driving skills in pre-young and older drivers. Here are the drving forces behind this new initiative for the Scottish Borders.
John Cleland is a retired professional racing driver, twice the winner of the British Touring Car Championship. He resides in the Scottish Borders with his family where he runs his Volvo car dealership. He is not only a founder member of this project, but is enthusiastic and deeply committed to the project. He has been responsible for much of the background support work by providing Volvo demonstrator vehicles for the pre drivers and assisting with much of the administration and promotion of the project.
Retired Chief Inspector Andrew McLean is one of the founder members of this programme; he spent several years in the Road Policing Department and is an Advanced Driving Instructor and Road Collision Investigator. He has been responsible for drawing the programmes under one umbrella group and securing its current funding.
I have been Chairman of the Group for seven years and I am an Advanced Driver, Advanced Motorcyclist and Car Observer. Very briefly I am a retired Chartered Geotechnical Engineer with over 40 years experience in geotechincal and civil engineering contracting throughout the UK and Overseas. I retired back to the Borders in 2015 and in addition to being Chair of BGAM, I have a similar role in Energise Galashiels Trust and am heavily involved in rugby union as a past President of Gals Rugby and currently on the Club Rugby Board of the SRU.
All assisted by Scottish Borders Council, The Scottish Ambulance Service, The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Volvo, Traffic Scotland and all nine of the local High Schools in the area.
