§ Mr. Gordon MarsdenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1) what plans he has to allocate funding to highway authorities for the provision of safety measures at sites with an accident record of less than three years; [84633]
(2) what plans he has to review the criteria for allocating funding to highway authorities under the Local Safety Scheme Programme; [84634]
(3) what assessment he has made of the policy to restrict funding allocations under the Local Safety Scheme Programme to sites with a three-year accident record; [84631]
(4) what plans he has to review the current guidelines for highway authorities on the provision of accident reduction and traffic calming measures; [84632]
(5) what assessment he has made of the impact on road accident reduction of the Local Safety Scheme Programme. [84643]
§ Ms Glenda JacksonUnder the Transport Policies and Programme (TPP) regime for local capital transport expenditure, funding for Local Safety Schemes was restricted to sites which had a three year record of accidents. A consistent pattern of accidents suggested a problem with the road layout which was likely to be alleviated by engineering measures, rather than randomly occurring accidents arising from other causes, such as driver behaviour.
In terms of assessment, the 1996 Transport Research Laboratory study "Accident Reductions from Local Authority Safety Schemes using Transport Supplementary Grant" outlined the success of the general approach to these schemes. An overall 29 per cent. reduction in accidents followed the implementation of the schemes and an overall first year rate of return of 190 per cent. was achieved. Most of the schemes produced a reduction in the severity of accidents; there was a 29 per cent. drop in slight casualties, a 46 per cent. drop in serious 83W casualties and an 88 per cent. drop in fatalities. A new research project is currently looking in more depth at the effectiveness of recent local safety schemes and is expected to be completed later in 1999.
The Government's Transport White Paper "A New Deal for Transport: Better for Everyone" announced the replacement of the TPP system with Local Transport Plans (LTPs). These plans will place much greater emphasis on targets and the strategy to achieve those targets rather than individual projects. There will be a greater emphasis on local authorities getting results, but greater flexibility in how they achieve them.
In April this year we published guidance to local authorities on producing the provisional Local Transport Plans for 2000–01, due to be submitted in July 1999. Consistent with the new approach, it does not prescribe that expenditure be on sites with a three year accident record. Local authorities will, however, need to continue to examine where accidents and accident casualties are occurring and to plan cost effective remedial engineering measures as one element of an overall safety strategy. The LTP guidance will be reviewed following receipt of the provisional plans in July and we expect to produce further guidance in time for the full LTPs, due in July 2000.
We will continue to issue advice on the technical aspects of traffic calming to local highway authorities through Traffic Advisory Leaflets.