Selby and Kippax MP Keir Mather has called on North Yorkshire Council to improve the region’s road safety.
The MP explained that for too long, North Yorkshire Council’s approach to road safety has not been “victim-led”, furthering that regions only see action after someone is “injured, or worse, killed”.
He added: “Road safety concerns fill my inbox week in and week out, and are the most talked about issue when I hold my regular drop-ins across our constituency.
“As Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said last week, we treat road safety in a way as if it is somehow a natural accident.
“If the number of people who were being killed or seriously injured on our roads were being killed in another way, it would be treated as a pandemic.”
The issues of most concern in the area, Mr Mather said, are as follows:
The MP said he is “redoubling the community’s efforts” to address these and other issues with a new petition to raise awareness, and has written to North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for highways and transportation, Cllr Keane Duncan, to seek support and put measures in place to work towards a collaborative approach to tackling the issue.
He will also write to every primary school in his constituency to understand the concerns they have about road safety outside the school gates, feeding this information back to North Yorkshire Council.
The moves come as Road Safety Week, which falls this week (November 18 to 24), recognises the devastating toll that road collisions have on families across the UK.
In response to Mr Mather’s letter, North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for highways and transport, Cllr Keane Duncan, said: “We are taking coordinated and proactive action to improve road safety across the county, including in and around Selby.
“We’re working with the Department for Transport to deliver a major £3 million package of safety improvements on a high-risk stretch of the A19, south of Selby, including the potential for a roundabout and related works to benefit the local community.
“We’re also reviewing speed limits across North Yorkshire’s entire road network, reducing limits pre-emptively, not just in response to accidents.
“Speed limits near schools are being reviewed as a priority, with lower limits introduced or pending, subject to advertisement or consultation, in 16 locations.
“While there is always more work to do, our approach is working.
“Analysis of data shows the trend for the number of collisions, injuries and deaths on North Yorkshire’s roads in thankfully declining.”
North Yorkshire Council is part of the York and North Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership - a group of local authorities, emergency services and other agencies, designed to reduce the number of people killed or injured on the roads.
The partnership includes North Yorkshire Police, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, Highways England, Yorkshire Ambulance Service, Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service and City of York Council.
Deputy Mayor for York and North Yorkshire, Jo Coles, will attend a meeting with the Partnership at the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Training Centre later today (Friday, November 22).
She explained: “Road safety is hugely important for many communities across York and North Yorkshire, as well as to the Mayor and myself.
“The York and North Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership is commissioning a review to explore the costs and effectiveness of average and/or fixed speed cameras.
“This study will be completed in the first quarter of 2025.
“Ours is a large and diverse region with an extensive road network and it wouldn’t be sensible to apply one rule to the whole region.
“I am looking forward to examining the study’s findings with local partners and representatives to ensure we have a system that works for all our communities.”
(28-11-210 SU)
