Four new projects have received nearly £5m from the Department for Transport (DfT) as a top-up to the £195m already provided for the Safer Roads Fund.
The four new schemes were announced by the minister for local roads, Lilian Greenwood, at a launch event for the Road Safety Foundation's (RSF) update report on the fund and its impact.
The four projects are:
- A188 Newcastle & North Tyneside - £1,633,500
- A1074 Norfolk - £1,672,000
- A611 Nottingham (Hucknall Road) - £396,000
- A319 Surrey - £1,298,000
According to the DfT, which provides the cash for the Safer Roads Fund, the £4.99m announced does not form a new full programme.
Previous funding announcements included allocations of £100m and £95m, but the DfT stated that this was just ‘an additional allocation for four further schemes' under the existing programme and not a new tranche of funding.
It added that this additional cash brings the total investment in the fund to over £200m since its launch in 2016.
Better safety and definitely not sorry
The new report on the fund, which accompanied the four new schemes, showed that the programme (excluding these new additions) is expected to prevent ‘an estimated 2,700 deaths and serious injuries' over a 20-year period, delivering £1.25bn in societal benefits from a £195m investment.
This means that for every £1 invested, there is expected to be a £5.30 return.
With the last report published during the COVID-19 pandemic, this latest iteration has been updated to include all programmes to date and explains the approach taken.
The fund focuses on local A roads (both rural and urban), where safety risk can be high and alternative routes are limited, and its use of iRAP star ratings is now informing wider national approaches to road safety, according to the RSF.'
