Agenda item

(i)              Report of the Director of Transformation and Partnerships.

(ii)             Presentation by the Strategic Traffic Manager, Regeneration and Economic Development.

The Chairman introduced the Strategic Traffic Manager and Chair of the Road Safety Partnership, Dave Wafer who was in attendance to speak to Members in relation to the Road Safety Reduction Partnership (for copy see file of minutes).

The Strategic Traffic Manager thanked Members for the opportunity to address the Committee and noted that there were a lot of statistics and trends identified regionally and within the County.  Members noted that the North East in general performed better than the country as a whole, with the number of casualties in 2015 being the second lowest since records began in 1979.  It was added that the number of collisions was 2% less than the 2005-2009 baseline and this was in the context of traffic levels having increased almost back to pre-recession levels.

The Committee noted that for County Durham it was more a of a mixed pattern, with overall casualties reducing however the number killed or seriously injured (KSI) had increased by 16%, albeit lower than the 2005-2009 baseline figure.  It was added that as the figures in terms of numbers of people was low then a few incidents can result in large increases in the percentages, however, it was highlighted that vulnerable groups appeared to be disproportionally effected and that one incident involving 86 child casualties was skewing figures.  The Strategic Traffic Manager noted that while this was the case, the national comparators in terms of child casualty numbers remained unfavourable.

Members noted decreasing trends in 2015 in relation to pedestrian casualties and significant improvements to bus occupant casualties and increasing trends in terms of a slight increase in the number of motorcycle casualties.  It was added that while the number of pedal cyclists remained relatively static, the number of cyclists seriously injured had increased 125% on the previous year.

The Strategic Traffic Manager noted benchmarking using the latest available data from 2014 and that North East Council’s generally perform well in comparison to the other 139 English Councils.  Members noted County Durham performance was in general good, however, the County did not compare well in terms of the safety of bus occupants and child casualties.

Members were referred to graphs showing the rate of casualties per billion vehicle miles against Local Authorities within the Country, and noted Durham was within the second quartile and performing better that the England average.  Councillors noted that County Durham also performed well in terms of rate of casualties per million population, however, was below the England average in respect of the rate of child casualties per billion vehicle miles.  Members noted that when looking at rate of child casualties per 100,000 child population then Durham performed poorly, being second from bottom.

The Strategic Traffic Manager explained that regionally a link between deprivation and casualty numbers was being seen and that car passengers were more likely to come from deprived areas, especially those aged 18-24.  Members noted that deprived areas also tended to have higher levels of pedestrian casualties and child casualty rates in deprived areas were 3 times greater than for those of the least deprived areas.

Members noted a number of current and future actions including from April 2015: 12,785 young people engaging in practical road safety training working with AAPs; 97 older people having received SAGE driver assessments; 148 safe and fuel efficient courses being delivered to drivers for companies in South Durham and 39 riders had attended BIKESAFE post test workshops.

The Committee noted actions since November 2015 included: 3,706 young people having completed the practical child pedestrian training course; 920 young people having received EXCELerate presentations; 2,287 Year 5 and 6 pupils having completed bikeability training and 39 young people having completed the EXCELerate post-test practical training course.

The Strategic Traffic Manager concluded by noted actions since January 2016 had included 357 community speed watch activities having taken place and 148 speed camera deployments had resulted in 3,225 detections of excess speed.

The Chairman thanked the Strategic Traffic Manager and asked Members for the question as regards the report and presentation.

The Chairman asked how the Local Authority could help in terms of targeting road safety issues.  The Strategic Traffic Manager explained that visibility was an issue and therefore there was a need to keep campaigns in the public eye, such as in connection with mobile phone use. 

Councillor S Forster asked as regards who decided upon where the moveable speed cameras were deployed.  The Strategic Traffic Manager noted that the Police can move their equipment and also if there were complaints as regards speeding then the Council could look to measure to see if there was an issue in an area.  It was added that should here be a casualty, then regular visits to an area could be factored in, and also working to any intelligence received, for example via PACT meetings.  Councillor S Forster asked whether there would be feedback from PACT meetings in this regard.  The Strategic Traffic Manager noted that if the Council or Police go out to a site and carry out measurements and there are no issues, enforcement action would not be looked at.  Members were reminded of schemes such as Community Speedwatch, with Councillor T Nearney agreeing on its importance. 

Councillor T Nearney noted the “Fatal Four” and asked if, when looking at the links to deprivation, whether there was any one of these factors that was more prevalent.  The Strategic Traffic Manager noted that when looking at rural areas, there were issues in terms of drugs and alcohol late at night.  Members noted that attitudes were hard to change and programmes such as EXCELerate looked to try and change people’s mind-sets and to try and get across the message of the impact that drink/drug driving can have.

The Chairman noted the links to 20mph zones and also in terms of more deprived areas being more likely to have less roadworthy vehicles, and more likely to have non-qualified and non-insured drivers behind the wheel. 

The Strategic Traffic Manager noted that there was joined up working, linking into the previous item on OCGs, with a lot of technology available and used in order to track and detect those types of vehicle and drivers.  The Chairman added that there were a number of diverse issues across the County and the Strategic Traffic Manager noted he would be back to speak to Members more in-depth later this year. 

The Overview and Scrutiny Officer noted that the issue of the Fatal Four was picked up within the Work Programme and as the Officer had mentioned a further update would be provided to Committee in December.     

Resolved:

That the report be noted.