Road safety funding plea rejected

A Durham County Councillor’s plea for a £10,000 allowance to fund road safety measures has been voted down, writes Local Democracy Reporter, Bill Edgar.

Craig Martin, member for North Lodge, urged Reform leaders at the local authority to introduce a £1.2 million community scheme to enable county councillors to introduce restrictions such as speed humps and traffic calming measures. 

The Liberal Democrat councillor made the plea during a full council meeting, where the council’s budget for the next four years was approved. 

But council leaders did not support the motion and said the proposed fund is “nowhere near” enough to cover the cost of such schemes after councillors were told the average speed humps scheme costs around £40,000.

“When residents open their front doors, they see danger directly in front of them,” said Cllr Martin. 

He told councillors: “We live with these roads day in, day out, seeing all those potential accidents, near misses and casualties waiting to happen.”

Cllr Martin insisted he was not proposing widespread “rampant 20mph zones” but instead to give local councillors the powers to fund improvement schemes raised by residents. 

He added: “Previously, councillors had the ability to proactively take action on this, utilising our neighbourhood budgets to implement reasonable changes. But the cost of implementing such changes has increased dramatically. 

“Neighbourhood budgets have been frozen for a long time, and now they’re being cut. We lack any direct power or finances to provide basic highway safety improvements to our communities.

“There is a perception that Durham County Council are extremely light touch when it comes to highway safety. We need to get rid of this misconception by taking strong action. Back the amendment and show residents we are hearing, listening, and acting on their highway safety concerns.”

Liberal Democrat councillor Elizabeth Scott also supported the motion and said the funding would save children’s lives. “Any councillor that doesn’t vote for this is disregarding the concerns of the people of Durham,” she added. 

Cross-party members from Labour, the Green Party and Conservatives also supported the plea. 

But members of the Reform-led local authority voted against the motion, insisting that the region’s roads are safe. 

Tim McGuinness, cabinet member for rural, farming and transport, said: “The average speed humps scheme costs around £40,000. The budget you are suggesting is nowhere near sufficient to implement a significant engineering scheme. 

“Road safety and traffic changes must be data-driven. We will listen to the community but we need the hard facts and the data to back up spending money due to the costs. We need to prioritise where there are issues. Safety on roads is very much a perception. 

“Durham roads are safe.”