Agenda and minutes

See above.

The minutes of the meeting on 24 September 2019 were agreed as a correct record.

No additional declarations were made.

This council notes that:

·         road safety and traffic speeds are of significant concern to many residents in Gloucestershire, in both urban and rural areas.

·         elected county councillors have a key role to play, working with local communities, to resolve these concerns, finding effective road safety solutions to help pedestrians, cyclists and all road users.

However, this council further notes that:

·         when county councillors request measures to reduce traffic speeds, even when offering to put their highways local funds towards it, policy and financial constraints mean they rarely come to fruition.

·         a key obstacle in securing some traffic calming measures is the cost of Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO) and the lengthy processes needed to secure changes such as yellow lines.

Therefore this council resolves to:

1)       ask Cabinet to review county council policies relating to traffic calming, including the use of physical design and vehicle activated signage, to aid councillors in securing evidence-based road changes.

2)       write to the relevant Secretary of State to:

a.       express our serious concern that national road safety guidelines are too restrictive and ask for the guidance to be reviewed to create a more enabling policy framework.

b.       clarify what progress has been made to simplify the TRO process.

3)       consider increasing the road safety budget for 2020-21 through the budget setting process, which could include a ring fenced budget for each council division. 

4)       build on existing local road safety initiatives to establish “road safety partnerships” for each of the six districts where there are none, and to formalise the relationship between road safety partnerships and the highways authority and county councillors.

4.1      Members noted the motion included in the agenda pack that had been referred to the Committee from full Council on 11 September 2019. In particular they focused on the suggested resolution:

1)      ask Cabinet to review county council policies relating to traffic calming, including the use of physical design and vehicle activated signage, to aid councillors in securing evidence-based road changes.

2)      write to the relevant Secretary of State to:

a.      express our serious concern that national road safety guidelines are too restrictive and ask for the guidance to be reviewed to create a more enabling policy framework.

b.      clarify what progress has been made to simplify the TRO process.

3)      consider increasing the road safety budget for 2020-21 through the budget setting process, which could include a ring fenced budget for each council division. 

4)      build on existing local road safety initiatives to establish “road safety partnerships” for each of the six districts where there are none, and to formalise the relationship between road safety partnerships and the highways authority and county councillors.

4.2      Philip Williams introduced the report which sought to give a brief overview of the work carried out regarding road safety in the Council. It provided some headline figures. Members received a presentation to compliment that report. Andrew Parker Mowbray, Road Safety and Transport Data Team Leader and Alexis Newport, Parking Manager, provided members with additional information.

Members noted the partners that worked towards improving road safety including:

·         Integrated Transport Unit

·         Department of Transport

·         Road Safety and Transport Data

·         Parking Team

·         Police and OPCC
Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service

·         Highways

·         Highways Development Management

·         Highways England

4.2      The Committee understood the background to the dissolving of the Road Safety Partnership . While the partnership had previously provided a hub for those partners  to co-ordinate road safety activity, those partners were still working together behind the scenes. There were some benefits to the new approach with road safety sat within the Council for example having better connections with highways engineers.

4.3      Members saw a map showing the injury collisions on the network in Gloucestershire over the last three years. This demonstrated higher numbers of casualties in urban areas. It was suggested that these would include incidents around junctions, incidents involving cyclists and pedestrians in comparison to speed related collisions in broader parts of the network.

4.4      In the past, regular updates in relation to road traffic incidents were sent out to members and some members suggested that it would be worth circulating that data again. In response it was explained that a change in reporting had made it difficult to compare past data. There was now a national system on reporting ‘Killed and Seriously Injured’ and those councils that had taken on that system had seen a 20% increase in serious causalities being reported. Those councils that had yet to take on that system were not showing that increase. Now that the data had been collated over a number of years it was getting easier to use  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.