Meeting minutes - Road Safety Framework Local Partnership Forum - North - 23 November 2023

Members

  • Kieren Green (Chair) - Transport Scotland Road Safety Policy
  • Stuart Wilson (SW) - Transport Scotland – Safety and Development –Chair of A9 Safety Group
  • Caroline Hay (CHa) - Transport Scotland – Road Safety Scotland
  • Richard Perry (RP) - Transport Scotland - Area Manager
  • David Devine (DD) - Transport Scotland - Area Manager
  • Andrew Wilkinson (AW) - Aberdeenshire Council
  • Colin Maciver (CMa) - Western Isles Council
  • Daryl McKeown (DM) - Perth and Kinross Council
  • David McArthur (DMca) - Perth and Kinross Council
  • Diane Anderson (DA) - Moray Council
  • Elaine Penny (EP) - Moray Council
  • Graeme McKenzie (GM) - Dundee City Council
  • Neil Hutcheson (NH) - Shetland Council
  • Lisa Mackellaich (LM) - Highland Council
  • Yvonne Scott (YS) - Orkney Council
  • Kenny Roy (KR) - Orkney Council
  • Campbell Sands (CS) - Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
  • Fiona Reid (FR) - Dundee City Council
  • Darren Chambers (DC) - Scottish Ambulance Service
  • Simon Bradshaw (SB) - Cycling Scotland
  • Vycki Ritson (VR) - Aberdeen City Council

In Attendance

  • Andrew Patterson (AP) - Transport Scotland Statistics
  • Donnie Mackinnon (DMa) - Police Scotland
  • Julie Smith (JS) - Police Scotland - North Safety Camera Unit
  • Anna Gale (AG) - Public Health Scotland
  • Mathew Wylie (MW) - Orkney Council

Apologies

  • Marco Bardelli (MB) - Transport Scotland - Area Manager
  • Alasdair Sim (AS) - Transport Scotland - Area Manager
  • Calum Mackenzie (CM) - Western Isles Council
  • Brian Cargill (BC) - Perth and Kinross Council
  • Roddy Ross (RR) - Perth and Kinross Council
  • Caroline Hood (CH) - Robert Gordon University
  • Ewan Wallace (EW) - Aberdeenshire Council
  • Ian Wallace (IW) - Aberdeenshire Council
  • Robin Pope (RP) - Highland Council
  • Rona Gibb (RG) - Paths for All
  • Martin Hall (MH) - Aberdeenshire Council

Secretariat

  • Ben McKenna (BM) -Transport Scotland Road Safety Policy

Agenda Item 1 - Welcome and Introductions

The Chair welcomed the LPF North members to the meeting, and proceeded with round the table introductions.

The Chair thanked Chief Inspector Andy Barclay for his contributions to the group and road safety, who has now moved on from Roads Policing. Andy’s replacement is yet to be appointed.

Previous Minutes and Actions

The minutes of the previous meeting, 15 June 2023 were agreed as an accurate record of discussion, all actions stemming from the last meeting have been completed or are covered within the agenda.

Feedback from Governance Groups

  • The SPB agreed to the OPGs recommendation on having 3 Key Priority Groups. TS will now begin to work on the creation of the groups, and will hold the first meetings in 2024.
  • The SPB agreed to the OPGs proposal of holding a Road Safety Summit.
  • The SPB discussed if behaviours have changed since the pandemic and if this has had a negative impact on casualty stats. The Board will look into this further and asked for this to be raised at the Road Safety Summit.

Action Point: Members to let Secretariat/Chair know if they would like to be involved in any of the Key Priority Groups.

Agenda Item 2 - Knowledge and Data Analysis

Update on 2030 targets & localised stats

AP shared the progress towards the 2030 casualty reduction targets and intermediate outcome targets, including localised statistics referring to the latest available data recently published in the Reported Road Casualty Scotland 2022 statistics. The following points were highlighted;

  • Fatalities went up from 141 to 173 (23%). Overall GB increase in fatalities is 10%
  • 101 fatalities happened on 60 mph roads
  • Total casualties went up from 5,111 to 5,621 (10%) (but third lowest since records began)
  • 70+ has the most fatalities of any age group (47)
  • Motorcycles and Older Road Users are still overrepresented in the North, and Scotland as a whole

Key themes:

70 plus age group

DMa highlighted the Driver Engagement North initiative that was funded through the Road Safety Framework Fund. It includes a driver simulator where drivers, particularly older road users can participate and afterwards have a conversation with the officer on the performance of their driving. The Force is also increasing eyesight tests.

The Chair raised the importance of relatives of older road users having that conversation, and ensuring that a support package is in place, should they revoke/lose their licence. 

Motorcycles

DMa provided an update on Rider Refinement North, also funded through the Road Safety Framework Fund, which is an initiative targeting motorcyclists. Police Scotland is looking to role this out further, to the Islands etc.

An update was provided on the PRIME initiative which has seen road markings being installed at areas with poor motorcycle performance. It has been running between 2020/2023, with 20 sites in total, and has had a positive effects in terms of bikers positioning when negotiating bends, with no fatal or serious collisions happening at any site since the launch of the scheme. Bends with no markings are currently being analysed, which will allow an evaluation on PRIME to see if it has been successful. A manual will be developed to help role this out further, and test the initiative elsewhere.

Action Point: Secretariat to circulate presentation on stats.

Agenda Item 3 – Partner Updates/Discussions

Public Health Scotland – Presentation

AG provided a presentation on the work that Public Health Scotland (PHS) do. The Public Health Sustainable Partnership Group was developed during Covid, which has many partners including TS, and is continuing to grow. The following points were noted:

  • Scotland has the lowest life expectancy in the west
  • Scotland’s health is worsening; people are dying younger / the number of people dying early is increasing / people are spending more of their life in ill health & the gap in life expectancy between the poorest and wealthiest is growing
  • There is building blocks that attribute to good health; employment/housing/education/healthcare etc
  • Sustainable transport systems is a wider issue that links road safety with public health and co-benefits include: physical activity, injuries, social contact, noise and air pollution & health inequalities
  • There is a link between using motor vehicles leading to poor health, and choosing more active and sustainable modes, leading to improved health

AG emphasised the importance of strengthening the link between transport and PHS. PHS has an e-learning network, and shared how members can get involved.

There is two subgroups in PHS; ‘Learning’ and ‘Data and Evidence’, who look at hospital data, but not slips, trips and falls. Feedback was welcomed from partners at a local level to help inform what is needed from PHS nationally.

Cycling Road Safety – Presentation

SB gave a presentation highlighting the work conducted on pedal cycle casualties. Noting that;

  • Pedal cycle casualties are relatively low, with two fatal and 180 serious injuries from last year’s statistics. However, serious injuries to cyclists are not reducing at the same rate as other modes.
  • If we want to get more people cycling then a key component to do this is to reduce the perception of road danger and attitudes towards people cycling.
  • Under reporting is a big challenge, with the data only being gathered by cases that are reported to the police.
  • Analysis of Contributory Factor data for fatal or serious injury collisions involving people cycling shows failing to look properly is the most common factor and that the person driving failed to look properly more than twice as many times at the person riding the bike. 

Partner Updates

Written partner updates were completed and circulated ahead of the meeting, however, the following was discussed:

  • Cycling Scotland: Road Safety Awareness Campaign: Give Cycle Space, has estimated to have reached 97% of all adults in Scotland, and will look to run again in 2024. Participation in Bikeability has significantly increased over 2022/23, however, noted difficulties in delivery in 2023/24 due to budgets cuts. With no funding available this year for delivery of Learner Driver Cycle Awareness Training in schools, there is an offer to orientate partners involved in road safety education to this training should they wish to include it in their plans.
  • Aberdeenshire – Delivered passive snow poles on motorcycle routes, on the back of motorcycles colliding with them previously. AW raised concerns on the safety camera programme criteria. The criteria looks at data from the past 5 years, but local authorities have data from the most recent year which won’t get looked at until years ahead, highlighting that this doesn’t fit in with the Safe System approach.

TS/Secretariat will speak to the Head of the Safety Camera Programme to look at the criteria, but noted concerns that if we make exceptions to look at individual sites, we wouldn’t want this approach to take precedence as there are concerns on facilitating this from a budget side.

  • Perth & Kinross – implemented buffer zones, but have found them to be ineffective, as motorists are braking heavily as opposed to gradually slowing down. New 20mph speed limits have been delivered. 6 new school exclusion zones were trialled and are currently being evaluated, which aims to reduce congestion around school gates. Compliance is going down and are looking to reengage and launching a public campaign.

Members discussed the exclusions zones and concerns on compliance at respective local authorities.

AW added that compliance goes down when there is bad weather, including parking at junctions etc. Aberdeenshire has implemented junction protections, and linked up to 20mph, which has been received well from residents.

DM added that P&K find incidents happen when children are crossing between parked cars, so the issue is congestion as opposed to speed. No further incidents have occurred since exclusion zones were implemented. Parents are compliant when dropping off, but carers/grandparents tend to pick up after school and often find that they don’t comply as much.

  • Police Scotland - North Safety Camera Unit – ran commercial vehicle week in July. 71 offences were detected for LGVs. The Unit is running an initiative, to advertise on apps that LGV drivers use. 100,000 impressions have been paid for and will be used within a 3 mile radius of where LGV drivers tend to stop such as industrial estates and services.
  • Transport Scotland and Police Scotland have worked in partnership conducting a deep dive into fatal collisions over a five year period, highlighting the recently published executive summary and full report. The recommendations from the reports will be circulated to the OPG to establish an action plan to begin implementing recommendations.

Action Point: AG to share link to PHS e-learning partnership and how to join.

Action point: Any partners delivering road safety initiatives in schools and would like to include Learner Driver Cycle Awareness Training, to contact SB.

Action Point: Chair/Secretariat to speak to Head of Safety Camera Programme to raise the concerns that the criteria looks at data from the past 5 years, but doesn’t take into account data from the most recent year that local authorities have.

Action Point: JS to share evaluation of LGV app initiative.

Agenda Item 4 - Funding

Road Safety Framework and Evaluation Fund

BM advised that the Road Safety Policy team will run another bid for the Road Safety Framework and Evaluation Fund, subject to budget approvals. Partners will be emailed ahead of the funding going live. This is a resource only fund and capital bids won’t be considered – and will be subject to OPG/SPB approval. Evaluations of previous projects funded through this fund was provided in the papers.

Safe System Training

The first Safe System training courses was held on 31 Oct/1 Nov & 22 Nov/23 Nov, which was delivered to Transport Scotland, and was very well received. We will look to deliver this to road safety partners in 2024. The Safe System training and manual will be available to all road safety professionals specific to Scotland’s needs and will continue to be available post funding.

All stakeholders of the Road Safety Framework (and further) have now been contacted to ask them to complete a survey to gauge the knowledge of road safety partners. The Chair emphasised the importance of completing this survey as it will help Agilysis understand the knowledge of partners on the Safe System, which will in turn, help inform the training. Partners were asked to send this on to colleagues, who have a direct or indirect involvement in road safety.

Action Point: All partners to complete the Safe System survey that was circulated and send to colleagues, who have a direct or indirect involvement in road safety.

Agenda Item 5 - AOB

YS added that Orkney is keen to run Rider Refinement North, and asked DMa to touch base to discuss further.

The next meeting will take place in June and a meeting invite will be issued in due course.

Action Point: YS to liaise with DMa to discussing rolling out Rider Refinement North in Orkney.

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Published Date 4 Jan 2024 Type Mode of transport Topic