Council 'committed to road safety' despite shrinking budget
WEST Berkshire Council has hit back at claims it is endangering people’s lives by cutting its road safety budget.A report by the road safety charity the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) claimed that the district council, like many others around the country, had reduced its road safety promotion budget by 15 per cent and risked endangering the public.
It contacted 152 councils to request figures related to planned spend on road safety, traffic management and education. West Berkshire Council was one of 81 to respond and produced figures which showed £1,316,000 had been spent last year, with £1,120,000 planned for this year.
Council spokesman Keith Ulyatt said: “Contrary to IAM’s assertion, this council is still doing lots of work on road safety.
“We have three officers dedicated to education, training and the promotion of road safety.
“We have a further six traffic engineers for creating a range of road safety schemes, including speed limit proposals, safety schemes outside schools, cycle training, and a whole range of traffic calming measures designed to improve road safety.
“We have reduced this staffing by just one post last year, which was a speed management assistant who operated the mobile speed indicator device (the one that shows a smiley face if you’re sticking to the speed limit) and in place of that, we have been training parish councils in the use of these devices, so they are still in operation.”
He said that contrary to claims it had “slashed budgets” the council had increased its spend on road safety, but Government grants towards it had reduced.
“If you look at our road safety programme outlined on our website you will see that we still have a total commitment to road safety in the district,” Mr Ulyatt added.
IAM chief executive Simon Best said: “Austerity is forcing councils to make difficult choices, but the fact that these cuts only represent the first year of savings under the Coalition’s spending review is deeply worrying.”
What do you think of the cuts? Join the debate on the forum.
