Agenda item

(1)         Kent Highway Services had the primary objective of ensuring that safety was at the heart of managing the highway asset. Road Safety had a single purpose, ‘to contribute to life in Kent, by reducing the number of people killed and injured on Kent’s roads’.   Government had set local authorities targets to reduce the numbers of those Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI’s), Kent County Council had monitored through the 2010 targets and now through corporate Core Monitoring.  Reductions of those killed or seriously injured had been made and Government targets had been exceeded.

(2)    Whilst Government targets had been exceeded it remained that further reductions needed to be achieved.  Through Kent Highway Services, Road Safety had four key activities that had played a part in casualty reduction – these were the four “E’s”

·              Education through awareness and training

·              Encouragement through publicity campaigns

·              Engineering, through making changes to the Highway Network that control or influence road user behaviour

·              Enforcement, through the Kent and Medway Safety Camera Partnership

(3)    Kent County Council had a statutory duty under the Road Traffic Act 1988 to carry out studies into the cause of accidents on the roads in their area; and to take appropriate measures to prevent accidents.  In the past the Road Safety operations had been funded by reward and area based grants. KCC’s contribution for the current financial year is £970k.  The comprehensive spending review had removed all ring fencing of area based grants. It remained for KCC to decide how Road Safety should be financed. In anticipation of the spending review ACPO had recommended to the Department for Transport that a revised operating and financing model be introduced.   It was anticipated that this operating model created a sustainable Safety Partnership, presently this had not been fully modelled in Kent. 

(4)    Kent had a successful casualty reduction partnership that could evolve to form a more holistic approach to better inform and influence Road Safety priorities and policies. It was proposed to bring the Health Service to the Road Safety Board.

(5)    It was proposed and documented in “An Operational Review of the Kent and Medway Safety Camera Partnership” to create a new operating model which led more offenders to being referred to driver improvement rather than fixed penalties. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the Department of Transport were considering the changes. This was likely to change the stewardship of the Safety Partnership away from KCC to Kent Police, detailed decisions were due in the coming months.

(6)    Governance and operational working mechanisms would be established to create a more holistic solution through the four “E’s” enabling:-

·              Development of cross cutting policy opportunities and recommendations, and  providing insight into the impacts upon casualty reduction

·              Discussion around areas of public concern such as wider speed enforcement and perception of safety

·              Better understanding of crash data and broader intelligence  to inform casualty reduction  strategies at individual and collective agency levels

·              Improved common understanding that reducing casualties not only serves society on a human level but also relieved financial pressure upon individual partners

(7)    RESOLVED that the key proposals for discussion to create a sustainable service, outlined in paragraphs (4) – (6) above, be supported.