West Sussex County Council’s draft Road Safety Strategy to undergo public consultation

The draft strategy, which aims to provide a new road safety vision for the county, including a revised casualty reduction target, was put to a scrutiny committee on Monday (November 25).

A report to the committee said: “The vision of West Sussex County Council, through this Road Safety Strategy, is to achieve a highway network that is free from people being killed or seriously injured, to influence behaviour to support safe road use, to create a safer road environment for everyone, and to encourage increased active and sustainable travel.”

When it came to the number of people killed or seriously injured on the county’s roads, the council’s previous target was to reduce it from 473 to fewer than 355 by 2020 – a drop of 25%.

But that target was missed, with the figure standing a 531 in 2023. This was an increase on the previous three-year, five-year, and ten-year averages.

The draft strategy contains a new target to reduce the numbers by 30% by the end of 2035.

Joy Dennis, cabinet member for highways & transport, said the main causes of death on the road related to driver behaviour or crime.

She added: “We can’t solve the problem ourselves – we need to work with partners. But this is us putting in what we can possibly do to assist with what is a very difficult issue.”

On the issue of partners, questions were asked about how things would work given that Sussex Police recently gave notice that the force planned to leave the Safer Sussex Roads Partnership.

Mrs Dennis assured the committee that the police would still work with the council but ‘in a different way’.

Stephen Hillier (Con, Haywards Heath, East) described road safety as ‘the innocents versus the idiots’.

Stating that he wanted the strategy to ‘focus on the innocents’, he added: “Children, vulnerable adults – it’s those people who are the innocent bystanders, who get hurt or killed by somebody else.

“Those are the ones who, for me, that an overwhelming amount of our resource should go into.”

Mr Hillier wondered if the strategy contained enough about pedestrian and cyclists.

He added: “It is about kids being safe on the road – it’s about older people who cross the road slowly.”

The draft strategy will be put out to public consultation in early December, running for eight weeks including Christmas and the New Year.

The aim is to adopt it in March 2025.