£50M boost for safer roads

Almost £50M is to be invested in road safety improvements through the third round of the government’s Safer Roads Fund.

Improvements will be made to 27 of the most high-risk roads in England, which will help prevent fatal and serious injuries.

Safety improvements covered by the fund include re-designing junctions and improving signage and road markings.

The programme will reduce the risk of collisions which will in turn reduce congestion, journey times and emissions. As part of the fund, government is continuing to deliver a wide range of improvements across all roads, while working with local authorities and safety groups.

To date, £100M has been provided through the programme to improve the 50 most dangerous roads in England, the majority of which are rural roads.

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: “Britain’s roads are some of the safest in the world, but we are always looking at ways to help keep drivers and all road users safe.

“We’re injecting £47.5M so that local councils around the country have the support they need to keep everyone safe, while reducing congestion and emissions and supporting local economies.”

The allocation to 27 different schemes has been based on data independently surveyed and provided by the Road Safety Foundation. The data analysed is based on a road safety risk, looking at data on those killed and seriously injured alongside traffic levels.

The previous rounds of the Safer Roads Fund programme focused on treating the 50 highest-risk local ‘A road’ sections in England with enhanced road safety engineering interventions. The scheme is set to prevent around 1,450 fatal and serious injuries over the next 20 years.

According to Road Safety Foundation analysis, early estimates suggest that the investment should prevent around 760 fatal and serious injuries over the next 20 years.

This additional investment builds on the government’s plans to recruit a specialised team of inspectors to build the country’s first ever Road Safety Investigation Branch. The team will look at how and why incidents happen and build an enhanced understanding of how we can better mitigate collisions.

The 27 schemes receiving funding from the Safer Roads Fund 3 are:

Road      Local authority                 Funding

A586      Blackpool Council            £1,100,000

A35        Bournemouth Borough Council  £1,890,625

A2010    Brighton and Hove City Council   £600,000

A52        Derby City           £475,000

A104      Essex County Council      £1,360,000

A35        Hampshire County Council           £6,040,000

A5183    Hertfordshire County Council      £1,800,000

A165      Hull City Council               £2,990,625

A3056    Isle of Wight Council       £2,140,000

A5105    Lancashire County Council           £920,000

A5038    Liverpool City Council     £859,375

A186      Newcastle Upon Tyne City Council            £3,650,000

A6130    Nottingham City Council               £950,000

A609      Nottingham City Council               £475,000

A4158    Oxfordshire County Council         £800,000

A4165    Oxfordshire County Council         £875,000

A2047    Portsmouth City Council               £1,300,000

A6022    Rotherham Metro. Borough Council         £750,000

A6042    Salford City Council         £743,750

A4030    Sandwell Metro. Borough Council             £750,000

A625      Sheffield City Council      £1,425,000

A3025    Southampton City Council            £875,000

A13        Southend-on-Sea Council             £3,425,000

A1156    Suffolk County Council   £1,275,000

A25        Surrey County Council    £1,800,000

A439      Warwickshire County Council      £1,320,000

A3102    Wiltshire Council              £6,980,000