New Deal for Road Safety in Berkshire

Road safety in Berkshire gets a significant boost as authorities approve an innovative new model for delivery. The 6 highway authorities have created a new shared service arrangement and appointed Road Safety Analysis (RSA) as contractor to work with them for the next four years.

‘Safer Roads’ draws on years of experience from working in partnership and secures a long term future for some highly respected projects, but with a completely new framework contract in place providing greater flexibility to vary services and manage costs.

A year after the Strategic Framework for Road Safety was published, local authorities have been looking at ways to “harness the efficiency and creativity of the private and voluntary sectors in making road use safer”; the new Safer Roads services does just that by appointing not-for-profit company RSA as the service provider.

Speaking on the award of the new contract, Richard Owen, Operations Director for RSA commented: “We are delighted to continue our longstanding work with the authorities in Berkshire.  They have shown significant leadership and creativity in developing the new contract which gives a long term future to a number of award winning schemes.”

He continued: “The costs to each authority are now lower, the service offering is broader, the liabilities are reduced and yet the skilled and experienced staff have been retained. The new model represents excellent value for the public and a significant innovation for the industry.”

Following on from the news about its partnership with TRL, RSA are also looking forward to utilising some of their leading experts to make the Safer Roads contract even more effective.

The Safer Roads service offers a package of measures that include a suite of analytical reports, communications management, enforcement management and campaign management services.

The award of this contract coincides with a recent report by the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Transport Safety (PACTS). Released on the anniversary of the publication of the Strategic Framework it highlights that 65% of English highway authorities who responded said that they were planning on sharing more resources with other local authorities, 45% said that they were looking to organise new partnerships.

The report, ‘Tackling the Deficit’, which is examining the effect of the last two years of budgetary constraint in the industry elucidates some of the challenges facing highway authorities and their need to innovate if they are to continue to invest in road safety for the future. The example of the Safer Roads service in Berkshire is an outstanding example of local authorities sharing services to reduce costs whilst maintaining output.