RoSPA publishes road safety guide for local councillors

12.00 | 15 February 2013 | | 3 comments

Road safety stakeholders have joined forces to publish a free guide for local councillors which sets out how local authorities can continue to deliver effective road safety services, despite the challenges they face.

RoSPA teamed up with other stakeholders, including Road Safety GB and PACTS, to update ‘Road Safety: A Guide for Local Councillors in England’. The guide identifies high risk road users, common causes of accidents, and the most effective ways to stop people being killed or hurt. It has been revised against the backdrop of significant cuts to public spending and the first rise in road deaths for almost a decade (in 2011).

The guide demonstrates how local authorities can continue to deliver effective road safety services by using evidence, coordinating with other public services, designing and delivering projects in partnership, and evaluating the effectiveness of their work.

Apart from the human cost, the guide suggests that investment in road safety can also be financially beneficial. It says: “Reported road accidents, including damage-only ones, cost around £15 billion a year. If unreported injury accidents are included, the cost could increase to about £50 billion. It has also been estimated that congestion, 25% of which is caused by road collisions, costs the country about £22 billion a year.”

Kevin Clinton, RoSPA’s head of road safety, said: “The need to prevent people getting hurt or killed has become even more urgent following moves to cut public spending. Local authorities, in particular, have faced substantial spending restrictions, which affect their ability to deliver the vast range of public services for which they are responsible.

“While road safety must accept its share of these restrictions, cutting road safety services too far could have disastrous consequences. We hope that this free guide will go some way to helping local authorities surmount whatever challenges they face at the moment.”

The guide was produced by RoSPA in collaboration with representatives from Road Safety GB; the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS); AIRSO; the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO); Living Streets; and CTC. Support was also provided by members of RoSPA’s National Road Safety Committee.

Click here to download the guide, or for more information contact Charlotte Hester or Alison Brinkworth on 0121 248 2045/2134.

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    The DfT’s “values” of accidents are sheer fantasy as those, including RSGB, responsible for this report really should know by now.

    They and learned academics can estimate how much output a worker killed or injured no longer produces, but let’s stop pretending that it is “lost” – it isn’t, because others step forward to ensure that, as in any market economy, demand continues to be met. And if they don’t their competitors do.


    Idris Francis Fight Back With Facts Petersfield
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    Quite a good guide – useful reading for anyone interested in this subject – not just Councillors.


    Hugh Jones, Cheshire
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    “The guide identifies high risk road users”… or road users AT high risk? Very different connotations.


    Kevin Willams, Survival Skills Rider Training
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