Nick Lloyd, former road safety manager at Staffordshire County Council, has joined TTC Group to spearhead a new venture which “offers a lifeline to cash strapped councils so that they can continue to provide first class life saving road safety education schemes”.
Managed Road Safety Solutions (MRSS) has been set up to “provide fully managed road safety programmes”, or to work with road safety managers to fill gaps in existing services.
MRSS intends to deliver a full range of schools based education and training programmes including practical pedestrian training, cyclist training, pre-driver training, young driver coaching and training programmes for motorcyclists.
Nick Lloyd, who has 24 years’ experience in council road safety, including 15 years as head of Staffordshire’s road safety team, said: “Councils have worked extremely hard to provide a high standard of road safety education and training and they face tough times with stringent budget cuts.
“The DfT has estimated that road safety teams have had a 40-45% cut in staff and budgets which have seriously reduced their ability to provide a premier service, despite all their best efforts.”
The TTC Group says it has “stepped in so that councils can maintain robust casualty reduction programmes in financially challenging times”.
Graham Wynn OBE, TTC Group chairman, said: “Road safety education is one of the many vital services that councils need to maintain. However, it must deliver value for money while being responsive to local community needs, which is where we step in.
“We have a proven track record borne from years of longstanding experience in providing education and training in road safety.”
For more information contact MRSS on 01952 607187 or visit: www.mrss-uk.com
Just a quick point for Gary. I’m sorry if your Fire & Rescue service in Coventry has been obliged to pull back from Road Safety education. I don’t know the local circumstances so can’t comment. However that is not true of Fire & Rescue nationally. My CFO is the National Lead for Road Safety for CFOA and is a passionate and tireless supporter of Road Safety education. We (the ETP team) transferred into F&R last year and have been welcomed and supported, both financially and structurally. I have to say, from my point of view, I am delighted with the change. My line manager is the F&R SE Regional Road Safety Lead and is in the process of co-ordinating a “Sharing best practice” day for LA RSOs and F&R services across the Region, to be held in Hampshire. Both my Chief and my line manager are working hard to establish communication and collaboration between RSGB and CFOA Road Safety. I hope this spirit of co-operation finds its way back down to you but if you’d like to discuss further please e-mail me directly and I’ll see what I can do to help.
Mandy Rigault. Oxfordshire.
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Gary of Coventry makes a good point – many small new companies do fail quite soon, as I knew when gave up my job to start mine with no experience – and no money either! But today’s new small companies that survive are tomorrow’s industries, and if all are refused work in case they fail, where will we be in 10 or 20 years’ time?
Again my comments are mostly disliked – I can live with that, if they provoke debate and make us think.
So at risk of the same again – trying to be impartial, overall the comments here imply the same sort of “go away, this is mine” mindset I saw only this morning on Conservative Home when UKIP was accused of costing Conservatives their seats – as if the seats by rights belonged to them, and it was impertinent of anyone to vote differently.
In both cases, sorry, no – it is dog eat dog out there, and has to be.
Idris Francis
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In reply to Idris Francis. I am not against the private sector competing for work but let’s look at the facts, let’s get concrete.
According to a recent govt. survey 8 out of 10 start up companies fail within the first three years. Some of these companies may have been started by handsomely paid off retired people whoose background may only have been local govt. and have no or little knowledge of how to run a business (or they would have done it earlier in their careers).
This being the case, who is left to pick up the pieces? Well it’s the local authority who have a legal obligation to provide a road safety programme.
This has happened with the Fire Service who 4/5 yrs ago charged into road safety with such gusto and the best will in the world…..then last year as the funding cuts started to hit they pull back and leave us the local professionals to pick up the pieces.
Gary Coventry
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For those in the private sector seeking orders from willing buyers in a competitive market, complaining about competition is – to coin a phrase – “like sailors complaining about the sea”.
It is normal that those who leave a job to seek another where they can utilise their skills, and normal that they then compete not just with others but often with former colleagues. But not just normal – essential, because it is competition that drives innovation and progress.
And where do taxpayers and the road users stand in this? I would have thought it obvious – they are entitled to the best service at the lowest cost that is available. As the saying goes, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen – as I was forced to in the 1970s when Far East competition drove me out of one business into – as it happened – a far better one. That’s life – compete or fail. Not just as individuals but as a country.
Idris Francis
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This company did send a letter to all chief executives of local authorities and from what I gather it stated they can deliver your ET&P at 35% cheaper, so this says to me they are all about the money, which is typical private sector.
supplied
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I understand that MRSS actually wrote directly to local authority CEO’s offering their ‘cut price’ services. I find this a particularly distasteful, underhand, and aggressive approach which will not win many friends in the profession. Working with the private sector is not an issue generally, but to try to get ‘in’ in this way is not the right approach.
Nicola – North of England
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In reply to Mr. Lloyd, you said it all in the word ‘local’ local government, local knowledge delivered by local people who are best suited to support their community, not some generic off the shelf one size fits all national company.
Gary
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We cannot help but see this as a threat; we are bound into our roles by loyalty and commitment and have known great friends and professionals “go to the wall”. And if a competitor’s first act is to tell your Chief Executive it can do your job for 35% less, that makes it particularly unlovable. And yet consultants have provided road safety services in some RSGB member authorities for years. It is commonplace in safety engineering, and the opportunity to buy in additional capacity and expertise when needed is valuable. Local Authority overheads are significant, and leaner organisations can legitimately claim to provide the same for less. Also, quality of service is not the sole preserve of the public sector.
In the coming years we will have to make our case for continuing to deliver services, probably several times over. These must be based on real benefits which are apparent to management and politicians. Anyone who relies on “dis-ing” the competition, does so at their peril.
Tim Philpot
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The key aim of TTC is to reduce collisions on our roads through the education and training of road users, something which it has been successfully doing for almost 20 years. TTC2000 is a not for profit company and regularly ploughs money back into local community road safety projects. MRSS has been established to support Local Authorities in a climate where funding is less and casualties are rising. With key personnel coming from a local authority background we fully understand local community needs and are committed to delivering a cost effective quality service as its number one priority.
Nick Lloyd, MRSS
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I agree entirely with Adrian. Yes, Local Authorities have been hit hard but they are working even harder to ensure they deliver a great service. The private sector will always put profit first, and it is difficult to see how they will be able to provide the quality service, in the quantity that the public is used to.
Nicola – North of England
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I don’t like this one bit, private sector deliver for profit, whilst here at local level we live and serve in our communities and we deliver with passion….that’s why chain companies like TTC can never, never take the place of local govt. rather like G4S or Clintons.
Adrian Curley, Coventry
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