EFFORTS to get The Press’s Live Now, Drive Later film shown in schools across Britain have enjoyed a further boost, winning backing from both York’s education boss and Oscar-winning former actress Glenda Jackson.

Coun Carol Runciman, executive member for children’s services at City of York Council, said she and the chief executive would write to council and education leaders across the country, asking them to show the DVD in their local schools.

She also said that as a lifelong supporter of road safety measures, she would be happy to promote the Live Now,Drive Later campaign and associated DVD in secondary schools in York, many of which had already shown it.

Ms Jackson, who is now the Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate, has said she would be happy to pass it on to her local schools. “I am sure they would all be interested in the topic which you are investigating,” she told York’s Children and Young People’s Champion, James Alexander.

The campaign was launched in 2007 in a bid to deter joy-riding after an inquest heard how two teenagers and a Press van driver were all killed after one of the boys took his father’s car without permission and collided head-on with the van. The film features a fictional dramatisation about a teenager who is horrifically injured after joy-riding and crashing.

Coun Alexander sent the DVD to every MP in the country before Christmas, asking them to view it and then ask their local education authority or secondary schools to show it to local teenagers. The Press revealed last Monday that more than 30, including Health Secretary Alan Johnson, had already responded by offering their support.

He said today the Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik had said he would be delighted to write to local authorities and schools in Montgomeryshire. Mike Hancock, MP for Portsmouth, said he would be also writing to local authorities and schools, encouraging them to show the DVD, while Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council had also said it was keen to explore how the DVD might be used in Barnsley.

Coun Alexander said he was extremely pleased the council had agreed to write to all council leaders. “Now, not only will every MP in the country know about this important Press campaign, but so will every council in the country. This campaign is beginning to have a real national awareness and this will surely mean more lives saved.”