Sandwell Council receives thousands of requests per year by concerned residents to improve the road safety environment in their area. Unfortunately, the Council simply does not have the money provided to them to undertake road safety work everywhere it is asked for.
So how does the council decide where the road safety budgets are targeted? Local Highway Authorities have a statutory duty under the Road Traffic Act to investigate recorded road casualty collisions: collisions where people are physically injured which are recorded by the Police. From those investigations Highway Authorities have to put in place policies aimed at reducing the number of collisions and casualties on their road network.
Sandwell does this by producing its cabinet approved Strategic Road Safety Plan which monitors previous performance in reducing road casualties and sets out the policies and delivery plan for the following 5 years:
Strategic Road Safety Plan 2024 - 2030
The new Strategic Road Safety Plan specifically targets vulnerable user groups such as pedestrians, children, motorcyclists and serious injury clusters and aligns with the new:
West Midlands Refreshed Regional Road Safety Strategy 2023 - 2030
Sandwell targets its road safety interventions through robust risk assessment and road casualty analysis. Road safety funding is generally targeted at locations in the borough where there are regular road injuries being recorded year on year and would likely continue to be recorded without intervention. The current policy rightly prioritises incidents involving children, pedestrians or those causing the most harm (killed and seriously injured).
In addition, consideration is given to ‘treatable’ incidents and those locations where clusters of incidents of a similar nature have been identified, which can be tackled through road safety improvements.
Every road safety request received is investigated in detail. If it does not meet the criteria for major road safety interventions Highways will still investigate for low cost improvements that can be installed to improve the situation for residents. These include such things as warning signs, road markings, pedestrian railings, bollards etc.
In addition, working in partnership with Town Team colleagues, Local Area Budgets have also been utilised to assist in providing measures at community concern sites. This is where there are no identified road casualty problems, but communities have highlighted specific road safety concerns.
Highways Services also periodically receive additional funding for road safety improvements through conditions attached to new major privately funded developments or through bidding for additional government money through one off road safety grants and initiatives.
Road Safety interventions can be delivered through Education campaigns, Enforcement or Engineering measures. Typically, most road safety projects rely on a combination of all three disciplines. To find out more detail of how Sandwell is using these to improve road safety across the borough please click on the links below.
Get in touch
If you require road safety input in to any community events or require help or advice, please email Road_Safety@sandwell.gov.uk
For any other road safety concerns on the highway, log onto My Sandwell or call 0121 368 1177.