Issue - meetings

Cllr Dave Norman asked Cabinet to agree to the recommendations outlined in the report and review feedback from the recent public consultation and agree a road

safety policy to make Gloucestershire’s roads safer for all

Having considered all of the information, Cabinet noted the report and

RESOLVED to:

Approve and adopt the Road Safety Policy as shown at Appendix A of this

report.

That funding options to deliver additional Road Safety policy elements are

considered as part of the 2023/24 budget setting and MTFS through potential

adjustments to the Highways Capital Programme.

Cllr Dave Norman asked Cabinet to agree to the recommendations outlined in the report, to review feedback from the recent public consultation and agree a road safety policy to make Gloucestershire’s roads safer for all.

Cabinet understood the journey that had been taken to reach a point where a policy had been developed. The Cabinet Member gave a commitment to ensure it would not ‘gather dust’.  Under the Road Traffic Act 1988, the local authority must prepare and carry out a programme of measures designed to promote road safety.  In addition, Gloucestershire’s Local Transport Plan set out the wider role to improve safety, security and health by reducing the risk of death, injury or illness arising from transport.

Gloucestershire was facing some tough challenges with the levels of killed and seriously injured casualties increasing across the network, over the last decade, following good progress and reductions in the early 2000’s. National studies showed that 5 of the 6 worse performing authorities were in the Southwest with Gloucestershire being number 6.

A draft Road Safety Policy had therefore been developed earlier in the yeardesigned to bring a greater focus to being more data led in our investment; working in partnership; changing driver behaviour; and meeting community aspiration alongside the Community Speedwatch Fund. The draft policy proposed a focus on 9 core themes and the adoption of 6 elements of the Safe System. The policy also set an ambition to halve the current killed and seriously injured casualties over the next 10 years and to aspire to the ‘Vision Zero’ objective to eradicated killed and seriously injured casualties by 2050.

The draft policy underwent an 8-week public consultation from 18^th July to 11^th September 2022. 520 organisations and members of the public responded to the 34 questions formulated around the identified areas within the policy. There was strong support for the policy, and in most instances those not supporting some elements felt that the approach wasn’t going far enough.  Where appropriate, consultation feedback had been incorporated into the draft policy.

The Council could not achieve its aspirations for road safety alone and partners such as the Police, Health services, Education, Vehicle industry, Central Government etc all had a vital role to play.

A small core level of Capital and Revenue was already funded within existing base budgets, however, additional resources would be required to deliver the objectives of the policy and further work was underway to identify options to support longer-term delivery.

Members noted the important balancing act around the provision of resources to tackle the issues across the County.

Having considered all of the information, Cabinet noted the report and

RESOLVED to:

Approve and adopt the Road Safety Policy as shown at Appendix A of this

report.

That funding options to deliver additional Road Safety policy elements are

considered as part of the 2023/24 budget setting and MTFS through potential

adjustments to the Highways Capital Programme.