Decision details

Road Safety

Decision Maker: Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Decision status: Recommendations Approved

Is Key decision?: Yes

Is subject to call in?: No

Purpose:

It was requested at the March Committee meeting that officers bring a report on road safety to a future meeting providing detail on road traffic accidents on the county’s roads.

Decisions:

Paul Taylor (Traffic and Safety Manager) presented the report. He advised the committee that the statistics show KSI’s (killed or seriously injured) trended downwards in 2019 but this will not be confirmed until mid-2020. 

Paul Taylor stated that there are reduced resources with safety initiatives, and they are left with difficult engineering work to carry out. Sites with a high collision rates have been identified; six sites have received funding to improve engineering amendments and four sites belong to Highways England who are being consulted with.

The engineering schemes undertaken are the council’s responsibility and these are being worked on with its partners and investors.

 

The meeting was informed that Warwickshire has a successful education scheme which is delivered by the Police and Fire and Rescue service. A new governance structure for the Warwickshire Road Safety Partnership has been implemented; the Strategic Board meet twice annually, and the Operational Board will convene in the next few weeks. The Operational Board will be looking at gaps and overlaps across all partners and they are primarily focused on intervention schemes.

Paul Taylor stated they are allocated £350,000 for smaller casualty reduction schemes and CIF (Capital Investment Fund) allocated £5 million between 2018-2024; this funding is used for speed cameras and major schemes.

 

 

Paul Taylor stated officers can raise concerns with hard shoulders, smart motorways and recent serious accidents with Highways England who are in the Road Safety Partnership. He confirmed that the education strategies promote wearing bicycle helmets and encourage safe cycling.

 

Councillor Crump added that motor users and pedestrians need education on road safety. He added that the Fire and Rescue Service have problems with motorway congestion when attending traffic accidents; Councillor Crump is speaking with the Chief Fire Officer and will raise this issue with him.

 

Mark Ryder (Strategic Director for Communities) raised that the Department for Transport (DfT) have paused rolling out smart motorways, therefore speculation should be avoided until the DfT have completed their review of smart motorways.

 

Paul Taylor stated accidents tended to be worse in North Warwickshire due to the large concentration of people and traffic in the area but this is being resolved with the funding for the high collision areas.

 

Councillor Kondakor noted that the committee have not had the data broken down and it is useful to look at the different road users and look at fatalities on all roads.

 

The Chair asked for a breakdown of road casualties and KSIs.

 

In response to the Chair, Paul Taylor stated a design has been prepared to improve the Warwick to Harbury Road and it is parallel running with a large-scale development. The development may be funded by the council until the development funding is available.

 

Janet Neale (Infrastructure Development Manager) clarified that this junction is linked to the development of 3000 homes at Gaydon so it will be delivered through a S278 scheme. The scheme was approved before houses started development and it needs to be implemented when 120 houses are occupied. The scheme is on S278 rather than S106 because the risks of financial overspend are removed and fall on the developer rather than the council.

 

In response to the Chair, Paul Taylor stated there is a maintenance issue with vehicle activated road signs and there is a low budget for them. It was agreed that funding can be looked at for these signs.

 

Resolved

That the Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee notes the report on road safety and requests that officers provide further details of the extent of serious (KSI) accidents on Warwickshire’s roads.

 

Report author: Garry Palmer

Publication date: 25/02/2020

Date of decision: 12/02/2020

Decided at meeting: 12/02/2020 - Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee

Accompanying Documents: