WE should all make road safety count.

While the Department for Transport's provisional estimates for reported road casualties in Great Britain from April to June this year indicate road deaths are down by two per cent compared to the year ending June 2014, we cannot be complacent.

According to the figures, 22,830 were killed or seriously injured, a seven per cent decrease compared with the previous year. There were 180,500 reported road casualties of all severities, seven per cent lower than the year ending June 2014.

Now The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) is urging local authorities across the country to keep road safety in mind in the face of potential further substantial cuts to funding.

Ahead of the Spending Review later this month, RoSPA, and a number of other organisations, has produced Making Road Safety Count, a guide for senior decision-makers in local government and other agencies on how to get the most cost-effective use from decreasing road safety funds, to protect their local communities.

One of the greatest threats people face in their day-to-day lives is the risk of being killed or injured on the roads. In 2014, the number of people killed in reported road crashes increased by four per cent – the first such rise in a decade – and the figure may continue to increase as the economy improves and traffic levels rise.

Kevin Clinton, head of road safety at RoSPA, said: “Local authorities have statutory duties to provide road safety, including taking steps to reduce and prevent accidents, promoting road safety, and securing the safe movement of traffic and pedestrians. They are already struggling with the very real challenges of assessing the most effective way to allocate smaller budgets across the full range of local government activity.

“Road crashes and casualties cause immeasurable loss and trauma, and impose a huge burden on our local services, causing a significant proportion of A&E attendances and hospital admissions, as well as massive costs on local authority, police and fire and rescue services.”

Graham Feest, chairman of the National Road Safety Committee, said: “Making Road Safety Count has been produced to show how this toll can be reduced by providing cost-effective road safety programmes that are: Informed by local data and evidence, and prioritise high risk groups and areas; Based on a Safe System approach; Planned and delivered in partnership with other agencies, and in consultation with local people; Evaluated to assess effectiveness and identify improvements.

“It is also intended to demonstrate the value of providing effective road safety services, and to encourage local authorities to protect road safety spending as much as possible in the current economic climate.”

Carole Whittingham, founder of the Brighouse based charity SCARD (Support and Care After Road Death), whose son Steven was killed in a road accident in 1992, says the cuts are a worry.

"And it has yet to be decided where these cuts will be," says Carole.

"It is just very clear to us, and has been for a few years, that the funding has not been there so what will happen when even more funding is taken away I shudder to think. If we go back 10, 15 or 20 years road safety was initially getting people into schools talking about the effect that driving, bad decision making can have on people. We did hundreds and hundreds of workshops with six formers and anybody and I think we made a difference. Now, because funding isn't there we cannot afford to go in and have to pay for everything out of our own pockets - I shudder to think what it will be like in 10 years time. Funding is already cut to the bone."

Coun Val Slater, Bradford Council's Executive Member for Housing, Planning and Transport, said: "A 30% reduction to Council Services is especially difficult to manage in terms of road safety. The management of casualties is a statutory duty of Local Authorities and a responsibility that we take very seriously. We have already taken the difficult steps to prioritise work based on evidence such as speed and numbers of accidents, leaving many other projects waiting until budgets become healthier. Further cuts may lead to an imbalance in service delivery so we will have to carefully monitor our output to ensure a consistent, fair and equitable service delivery."

Making Road Safety Count has been produced by a sub-group of RoSPA’s National Road Safety Committee, comprising AIRSO, PACTS, British Motorcyclist Federation, CTC, London Road Safety Council, IAM, the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation, and RoSPA.

It can be downloaded from www.rospa.com/rospaweb/docs/advice-services/road-safety/practitioners/making-it-count.pdf