July 2022
Welcome
Welcome to your monthly Highways Bulletin, designed to keep you up to date with highways activity across a number of themes. The theme for this month is Road Safety.
Road Safety
We all have a part to play in keeping our roads safe and thankfully Staffordshire has a good road safety record. We undertake wider activities such as gritting roads in winter, ensuring good illumination during hours of darkness and have an extensive school crossing patrol service.
It is your responsibility to use the roads safely - when driving always remember to wear your seatbelt, take regular beaks, respect speed limits, do not drive under the influence, and maintain your vehicle. You can keep up to date with the latest rules of the road by familiarising yourself with the Highway Code.
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Staffordshire Safer Roads Partnership (SSRP)
Did you know that Staffordshire County Council works in partnership with other agencies to investigate the causes of road collisions and takes appropriate action to make our roads safer?
Our partners include:
Since the Partnership was set up in 2001 there has been a significant reduction in the number of collisions resulting in injury in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. This will have been influenced by a range of factors, but work undertaken across the Partnership has also played a key role.
The Partnership is keen to hear from any community that has concerns regarding speeding issues. The SSRP website www.staffssaferroads.co.uk offers advice and guidance on enforcement and educative schemes, and gives communities the resources and confidence to address their concerns directly.
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Road Safety Improvements
We are always looking to reduce the amount of collisions that happen on the county's roads and we invest in highway improvements that make it safer for all road users.
If someone is injured in a road traffic collision on a public road and it has been reported to or recorded by the police, the county council will analyse this data. If we see a pattern of collisions that we think could be prevented by us taking some action we will put forward some proposals for consideration.
Projects to reduce collisions may include targeted road improvements to reduce traffic speeds such as putting in extra signs or traffic calming measures, installing new pedestrian & cycle routes, right through to junction re-alignments.
More information can be found on our road safety pages.
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Road Safety Education in Schools
Staffordshire has some of the safest roads in the country, a record that we aim to maintain. We've achieved this through an effective education, training and publicity programme with schools playing a key role.
Our Road Safety Education Officers (RSEO) work with over 500 schools within Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent and provide road safety education and training to equip children to travel safely.
We offer a wide variety of resources, projects and presentations that schools can use free of charge. All age ranges are catered for and topics covered include pedestrian training, transition from primary to high school, risk-taking as pedestrians, in-vehicle safety and pre-driver training for high school pupils.
More information on Education in schools can be found here.
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Routine Highway Safety Inspections
We have a small team of safety inspectors who routinely inspect over 6,000km of roads for safety defects and to ensure that they are as safe as possible. This is as well as footways, cycleways and all other highway assets.
Major routes that are used by significant numbers of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists are inspected on a monthly basis and all identified defects are prioritised for repair based on the potential risk to the travelling public.
The most urgent problems on our network are made safe in a matter of days, which means we have a really good performance record when it comes to responding to emergencies and maintaining a safe highway network.
Further information can be found on our 'Report It explained' webpage.
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Street lighting
Just as many people are replacing old lights in their homes with LEDs to save energy, we’re doing the same with streetlights up and down the county.
Our street lighting project will see half of the county’s 94,000 streetlights (the old orange ones) replaced with brand new LED lights, saving around £1.5 million a year in energy bills.
Not only are LEDs more reliable, they use less electricity which is cheaper and better for the environment. Typical streetlights last around four years, whereas the new LED lights will last up to 25. Carbon emissions from the lights are set to be reduced by 2,650 tonnes a year, they don’t emit any ultraviolet or infrared light, are more reliable, and are 100% recyclable.
Added to this, they improve public lighting and provide better facial recognition for security and CCTV cameras, helping people feel safer when out and about.
The street light project is being overseen by E.on, who manage the County’s Highway lighting network on behalf of Staffordshire County Council. It is projected to take around four years to complete.
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Fast Facts
#1 The county council's new streetlight project will save around 60% on energy bills. That's enough to power more than 3,500 homes for a year.
#2 This month alone, we have fixed nearly 1,600 potholes and other defects on the county's roads.
# There has been a 73% reduction in the number of personal injury collisions since 2010.
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