Maidenhead & Windsor

Local Maidenhead road safety and awareness schemes could benefit from a cash injection of more than £50,000 next year, thanks to an unexpected windfall through a government grant scheme.

New arrangements for the Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership mean that from April 1 2007 funding for Maidenhead road safety initiatives carried out by partnership members, such as the Royal Borough, will no longer come from speed camera fines. Instead the Department for Transport will provide partnership funding direct to each local authority from a £110 million national pot.

A report to next week's cabinet meeting (Thursday December 14) reveals that the Thames Valley allocation is likely to be in the region of £5.9 million - £1 million more than the partnership bid - so it looks as if there will not only be additional money to spare but also much more flexibility on how it can be used for local road safety schemes and initiatives that respond to community needs.

The borough is one of nine local authorities in the partnership and its share of the grant is set to be £319,000 for 2007/08. Some £265,000 is needed to fund the partnership's work but the £53,000 left will be retained by the council for local community needs.

Cllr Antony Wood, lead member for Maidenhead traffic and transport, said this was good news for the borough and a welcome boost for road safety.

He said: "There is a great deal of road safety work that can't be done by one council working alone. For example, we need the support and full co-operation of other members of the partnership like the police for the installation of speed cameras and the police and magistrates courts for speed enforcement and prosecution. However, there are many other ways of using this additional funding for road safety schemes particularly for the Royal Borough.

"We are already one of the safest boroughs in the UK and we are working even harder to further improve. This extra money in the next year's budget will help us continue our fight to reduce road accidents."

Cllr Wood said another new benefit is that each participating borough will have a board member to influence and agree the partnership's work programme, with more say in how the money is used.

The Thames Valley Safer Roads Partnership was formed in 2000 to improve road safety and reduce accident casualties across the region. As well as nine local authorities it involves Thames Valley Police, the Highways Agency, the Crown Prosecution Service and Her Majesty's Courts Service. Revenue from speed camera fines has been given to the partnership to fund enforcement and to educate drivers about the dangers of speeding.

The Maidenhead cabinet report illustrates the effectiveness of the partnership's work in the region through a reduction of 4,230 (22%) in people being injured on the roads and a reduction of 1,745 (42%) of serious injuries and deaths during the first four years of the joint arrangements. This adds up to almost 6,000 families being spared the grief and trauma caused by serious and fatal road accidents.

Cabinet is being recommended to approve the Royal Borough's continuing membership of the partnership and for Cllr Wood to be council's representative.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead