Assessment of the sustainability of road safety engineering in local government and exploration of alternative delivery methods

The loss of the central government road safety grant has resulted in cut-backs to education, training and publicity activities and school crossing patrols, this report finds.

The report also says many casualty reduction partnerships have come to an end and the number and scale of road safety engineering interventions have been reduced or stopped altogether.

The report is based on a survey of 30 local authorities, which found that road safety governance was ‘generally weak’ – while most of the ‘limited funding’ comes from each authority’s own budget.

The statutory framework that requires highway authorities to deliver road safety is also described as ‘weak compared with modern health and safety or product liability legislation’, and many of the authorities surveyed expressed concern that a lack of funding may prevent them fulfilling their statutory road safety duties.

As a result, the Road Safety Foundation is calling for the formation of a Highway Standards and Safety Board – in line with that already in place for the rail sector – to provide expertise and guidance to local authorities.