Issue - meetings

To receive a report on road safety education delivery arrangements from the Head of Highways and Transportation in cooperation with Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Community and Road Safety Manager.

The Committee received a report from the Head of Highways and Transport and the Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service’s Community & Road Safety Manager on the proposed arrangements for delivering road safety in Cheshire East. The Committee was asked to provide comment and support for the proposed arrangements prior to a formal agreement being set up between the Council and Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service (CFRS).

The proposed arrangements were that CFRS would fulfil the role of commissioned service provider for specified aspects of road safety education over the next four years starting from April 2012 with an initial set up period running until then. The road safety educational support by CFRS would compliment the wider road safety role of Cheshire East when delivering the three E’s which were Education, Enforcement and Engineering. Cheshire East would provide the Engineering elements with the Police providing the Enforcement.

Questions were asked and the following information arose.

·         Education was mainly to be aimed at primary school children to teach them about road safety as a pedestrian and cyclist on the roads. It was also aimed at children about to leave secondary school who would soon be learning to drive to teach them about the importance of safe driving.           

·         The agreement between the Council and CFRS was to be the first of its kind between any local authority and fire service and it would provide an opportunity to combine and make better use of each others resources. Members were happy that strong relationships were being built and hoped they would grow and develop in the future.      

·         Members of the Committee felt that cyclists needed to be provided for by ensuring that the edge of roads used on main cycle routes were well maintained to remove the dangers to cyclists of unsafe surfaces. This would be important as many tourists came into the borough to use the cycle routes. Young cyclists were educated about safe use of the road on the bikability hosted by schools. Bikability had replaced the Cycling Proficiency Tests.        

·         Accident statistics were used to measure the success of education initiatives however it was difficult to attribute reduction in road incidents to education programmes. CFRS regularly review their processes to ensure effective ad quality delivery of education programmes. Members of the Committee were keen to see more performance indicators to help them evaluate the performance of road safety initiatives.    

RESOLVED:

(a)  That the Committee offered support the proposals to set up a formal agreement for Road Safety delivery between Cheshire East Council and Cheshire Fire & Rescue Service.   

(b)  That the Head of Highways and Transport be requested to return to the Committee in 3 months with proposed targets and methods for measuring achievement of desired outcomes. The Head of Highways and Transport should also provide a breakdown of the global figures used in the report to illustrate figures for individual areas of the borough.