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Parish Councils

Introduction
The County Council works with The Suffolk Association of Local Councils to assist town and parish councils to address the concerns, issues and aspirations of these communities. In terms of road safety these councils can provide a vital link and essential support to improve road safety awareness, create safer communities and help reduce road accidents in Suffolk. The following items show a range of ways in which councils can help.

Safer communities

Parish Plans
With the government impetus to promote active citizenship now is an opportune time for parishes to consult their community in order to identify their needs for the future. By carrying out an all inclusive consultation the ideas, needs and concerns of the community can be identified and an action plan produced to address them. Some action points can be dealt with by the community such as setting up new community groups or seeking funding to improve facilities but other action may require partnership working with other Service Providers to tackle these issues.

Parish Plans will undoubtedly identify transport, highway and road safety issues. Carefully thought through these local issues can seek support from parish or town councils and become desires that the council's can promote with the County Council, who is the highway authority for Suffolk or the police, who carry out enforcement. Trunk roads are the responsibility of the Highways Agency. Common issues raised in Parish Plans include problems of accidents and speeding.

See: www.suffolkacre.org.uk/rural_services.php

Reporting Road Defects
Town and Parish Councils can report defects, such as potholes and blocked drains to SCC by using the Customer Services Direct problem reports. However councils can become the eyes of the parish and go one step further. Did you know that one missing 30mph repeater sign within a signed speed limit prevents the police from carrying out speed enforcement? Council's could draw up an inventory of their signs and assist SCC with far more precise details of damaged or missing road signs. And during the summer, councils can keep an eye out for visibility splays obscured by tall grass and report these to SCC.

Contact: www.csduk.com/csd/TransportAndStreets/gBizProduct?ProductID=PRRF001

Road Sign Cleaning
Where it is safe to do so local councils can support SCC by finding a volunteer to keep signs clean and better visible to drivers.

Precepting For Minor Highway Improvements
Numerous Town and Parish Councils have already made provisions in the past in their precepts to fund minor highway improvements. Alternatively they have sought support from their County Councillor's Locality Budget or other funding sources. Often this is because SCC is unable to prioritise or fund such improvements. Examples where local councils can engage include:

• Village speed gateway, around £1000 to £1300
• SLOW road-markings, cost depends on location
• Visibility splays - perhaps by negotiation with a landowner
• Dropped kerbs at junctions to allow safer crossing by pedestrians, or cyclists if allowed
• Additional road signs
• Pedestrian guard-rails at bus stops

Contact: www.csduk.com/csd/TransportAndStreets/gBizProduct?ProductID=PRRF001

Precepting For Local Road Safety Events
Following a road accident involving child cyclists in its village Ufford Parish Council funded a well-attended local cycle-awareness event. In conjunction with SCC's road safety team they organised a display that incorporated a quiz with prizes of cycle accessories. The local police attended and provided free cycle security marking. This was a good example of partnership working, which other councils could follow.

Contact:

E-mail suffolkroadsafe@et.suffolkcc.gov.uk

Make SID Smile
See the description of SID on this web-site under Safety Engineering.

Many communities have already arranged for SID to visit their roads. SID provides useful data about traffic speeds as well as acting as a speeding deterrent when it's in use. It has been estimated that SID reduces traffic speeds when it's in use, by an average of 14%. Local councils should seek to use SID if they believe there is a speeding problem worth investigating.

To book SID on-line click here

Contact:
Email SID@et.suffolkcc.gov.uk

Community Speedwatch
By arrangement with the police a community could tackle its local speeding problem using its own volunteers. A community could be a single parish or a group of parishes coming together to raise sufficient funds to purchase a police-approved hand-held speed gun and high visibility clothing. This could involve support from Locality Budgets. The police will provide training and forms for the volunteers to use to report the details of speeders. The County Council will provide insurance whilst volunteers are on the highway. On receipt of the returned forms the police will identify the owner of the vehicle and send either a first or second warning letter or a personal visit on the third detected offence. This initiative has been used extensively in Somerset and from October 2007 is being offered to all town and parish councils across Suffolk..

Contact the police's Chief Inspector by email: martin.barnes-smith@suffolk.pnn.police.uk

www.suffolkroadsafe.net
Suffolkroadsafe.net provides information about road safety education, publicity, training, safety engineering, and the school crossing patrol service.

If you return to the Home page you will see a menu of headings which will open up pages of information. We invite you to take a tour of the site. Some items of interest are as follows:

Road safety publications
You can order free posters and leaflets to display in the community: click here

Schools Safety
Visit our "Education" pages to find out how we promote traffic education among young people. Also see "Cyclist Training" and click on the Junior Road Safety Officer icon.

Safety outside schools is also a priority. For information about this see "The School Travel Plan" and "20's Plenty".

Mature Drivers
We have special information for older driver safety. See the pages under "Older Driver".

Volunteers
The road safety team is always looking for volunteers for cyclist training and the walking bus service! Please contact us on the email link below if you think that you may be able to help.

Contact
For all your road safety education, publicity, training and school crossing patrol queries please email us: click here

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