Meeting minutes - Road Safety Framework Local Partnership Forum - West - 28 November 2023

Attendees

  • Chair - Graeme McLay (GM) East Dunbartonshire Council
  • Hannah Wood (HW) Transport Scotland
  • Andrew Paterson (AP) Transport Scotland
  • Caroline Hay (CH) Transport Scotland
  • Simon Bradshaw (SB) Cycling Scotland
  • Barbara Rae (BR) Ayrshire Roads Alliance
  • Alan Bowater (AB) Police Scotland
  • George Cairns (GC) Glasgow City Council
  • Lorraine Napier (LN) Police Scotland
  • Fiona Cameron (FC) North Ayrshire Council
  • Grame Senior (GS) Ayrshire Roads Alliance
  • Jami Blythe (JB) BREAK
  • Karen McDonnell (KM) RoSPA
  • Shelley Gill (SG) National Road Victims Service
  • Colin Smith (CS) South Lanarkshire Council
  • Tony Topping (TT) Dumfries and Galloway Council
  • Stuart Watson (SW) Argyll and Bute Council
  • Anna Gale (AG) Public Health Scotland
  • Thomas Keay (TK) Scottish Fire and Rescue

Apologies

  • William Rice Inverclyde Council
  • Fiona Muir Renfrewshire Council
  • Ross McDowall East Renfrewshire Council
  • Ross Scullion Inverclyde Council

Secretariat 

  • Hannah Green Transport Scotland

Welcome and Introductions

The Chair welcomed LPF West members to the meeting and lead with round the table introductions.

Apologies were received for William Rice, Fiona Muir, Ross McDowall and Ross Scullion.

Agenda Item 1 - Previous Minutes and Actions

Previous Minutes – The Chair confirmed that minutes had previously been approved as an accurate record, circulated and published on the Transport Scotland website.

Outstanding Action Points – HW advised the revised Action Log would be distributed to members after the meeting along with the minutes.

Action Point 51: Issue updated Action Log

Owner: Hannah Wood

Agenda Item 2 - Road Safety Framework - Governance

HW provided an updated on the Strategic Partnership Board (SPB) & Operational Partnership Group (OPG) highlighting:

  • The SPB agreed to the OPG recommendation on having three key priority groups and the first meetings will be held at the start of 2024.
  • The SPB agreed to OPG proposal of holding a Road Safety Summit.
  • SPB discussed if behaviours have changed since the pandemic and if this has had a negative impact on casualty stats, they will look into this further and it will also be raised at the Road Safety Summit.

The SPB agreed for the OPG chair to work with and allocate each of the actions contained within the Road Fatalities Research document to OPG members and to report back to the SPB.

Action Point 52: Members to let HW know if they would like to be involved in any of the Key Priority Groups.

Owner: All Members

Agenda Item 3 – Casualty Statistics West of Scotland

AP provided a breakdown of the key themes on the most recent casualty statistics for the West:

  • Total Casualties, Serious Casualties, Slight Casualties all increased by 9-10%.
  • Fatalities increased by 23%.
  • Traffic Stats from DfT for 2022 show Scotland’s motor traffic increasing by 9%.
  • LPF West traffic increased by 9% against 2021, LPF West is inline with where it was pre-pandemic.

 AP presented how the LPF West is performing against the targets contained in the RSF2030:

  • LPF West seen an increase of 1 fatality against the baseline and noted that majority of Local Authorities have seen an increase in fatalities against the baseline figure.
  • On non trunk roads there was a reduction in fatalities by 5 however there was an increase of 6 on the trunk roads.
  • AP highlighted that LPF West has had an increase in car fatalities and that this was also seen nationally. Car fatalities increased 21 to 31, however there was drops in pedestrians and pedal cyclists.
  • LPF West is on track to meet its target, however there has been increases for the past 2 years, with most recent being an increase of 15%.

 IAP noted with regards to Intermediate Outcome Targets:

  • National level increase in pedestrian KSIs, older road user KSIs and road users aged between 17-25 KSIs. (KSI – Killed and Seriously Injured)
  • Motorcycles KSIs stabilised.
  • Pedal Cyclists KSIs decreased.
  • LPF West is already hitting the 40% reduction target for pedestrians, there was an increase in the past year of 13%.
  • LPF West seen a drop of 9% KSIs in 2022 with regards to pedal cyclists. National Traffic stats due show a 3% reduction of pedal cyclist on the roads in 2022.
  • Motorcycles KSIs decreased in 2022 down 8% however there was an increase of motorcycle traffic in LPF West of 12%
  • Older road users KSIs increased by 18% in LPF West, this is the second increase for older road users for LPF West. The number of older road users KSIs has now double what it was in 2020.

Road users aged 17-25 there was an increase of over 1/3 in 2022 for LPF West. The most signification modal increase is car users. 

Action Point 53: Slides from presentation to be issued to all.

Owner: Hannah Wood

Agenda Item 4 - Road Safety Scotland Education and Activity

CH provided an update on RSS Education and Activity noting that not all campaigns mentioned are from Road Safety Scotland (RSS) directly but from other policy areas with RSS supporting.

November – December 2023:

The launch of the pavement parking campaign, legislation to enforce the ban on pavement parking will come into force in December 2023. The campaign will target all road users and raise awareness of the new law. There is a campaign asset package which will be made available to all partners.

The 20 mph campaign will produce a toolkit and will contain posters, digital materials and key messaging to raise awareness of the roll out of 20 mph limits across local authority areas between now and 2025.

To support Police Scotland’s Festive Campaigns, RSS are launching a Drug Driving campaign aiming to target those between ages 18-35 to highlight that Police Scotland can now identify drug drivers with the advancement of road side drug testing. Support materials will be made available to all local authorities and road safety partners.

February 2024:

The launch of the speed campaign will target those aged 25-55 across Scotland.

March 2024:

A vulnerable road users campaign will target drivers and pedestrians. Within this campaign there will be a section of fitness to drive.

The suite of learning resources from 3-18 years is being redesigned and redeveloped by working with Leith Agency and a number of education specialists.

Primary – Road Stars:

Working with a primary school education expert to supply schools with additional activities.

The Junior Road Safety Officer scheme will be subsumed into the online site and an audit of content and materials will also be done. This will mean all learning resources will be online in one place for all educators and practitioners.

All RSS learning resources are being reviewed by an additional support needs specialist for suitability of children with mild to moderate additional support needs who are still within a main stream school setting.

RSS are aware there are children outwith main stream schools require additional and specific learning recourses to assist them with their road safety journeys.

RSS are working on replacing the 2 secondary school resources (S1-S3 Your Call S4-S6 Crash Magnets), and a secondary education specialist has been onboarded and they have completed the preliminary audit of the resources. The education specialist will be conducting interviews within local authority areas with the aim of forming ideas to go forward to develop new resources which will replace the existing.

CH noted that the Road Safety Scotland Seminar will take place on Tuesday 26th March 2024 in Edinburgh.

GM queried if the December 20 mph campaign will be for specific local authorities or national.

CH advised that it will be a national campaign, to raise public awareness that these limits will be implemented between now and 2025.

SB asked if there a theme for the RSS seminar and CH confirmed that it will focus on the 5 components of the Safe System.

KM noted that RoSPA have been working with RSS that all campaigns are suitable for those who drive and ride for work. If others wish to share campaigns with RoSPA contact Karen.

Action Point: N/A

Agenda Item 5 - Presentations

Cycling Road Safety – Presentation

 SB presented members with a presentation on Pedal Cycle Casualties, highlighting:

  • Fatalities and Serious Injuries have been low for 2022, consisting of 2 deaths and 180 seriously injured.
  • Cyclists account for 1% of journeys and 1% of traffic however they account for 10% of casualties and 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.
  • There are data challenges surrounding cyclist casualties due to under reporting, possibly as much as 50% of serious and slight injuries not being reported to the Police.
  • Hospital admissions figures from Public Health Scotland show 435 people admitted in 2022/23 involved in a road traffic incident however there is only 180 serious casualties in the official stats.
  • Police Scotland have been using the Crash system in recent years and this splits serious injuries down into 3 categories (very serious / moderately serious / less serious). This is allowing for better indication as to the level of injuries that are being sustained.
  • 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.

A group discussion took place discussing hospital admissions, cycling helmets and road traffic collisions.

Public Health Scotland – Presentation

AG went on to provide a presentation on Public Health Challenges, National Public Health and Sustainable Transport Partnership, Learning Networks, Opportunities for Collaboration with Public Health highlighting the following:

  • Those in Scotland die younger than in any other western European country, people are dying younger and earlier and the gap between the poorest and wealthiest life expectancy is growing.
  • The Public Health and Sustainable Transport Partnership group brings together a range of different stakeholders across transport, health and academia. Through this group there has been a number of reports published. There is a publication coming out early 2024 in relation to transport poverty and inequalities.
  • One area that is being explored is how public health and transport systems currently work together and where the opportunities are for more collaboration.
  • A webinar was hosted in 2023 around the learning network, there was a number of actions taken forward. The aim of improving health and wellbeing, take climate change action and reduce inequalities.
  • The way we travel is a major factor in how healthy people are, and road safety activities can be integrated into wider public health work.

Action Point 54: Slides from both presentation to be shared with members

Owner: Hannah Wood

Agenda Item 6 – Road Safety Updates

Members were invited to discuss key agenda items:

Order Drivers Discussion

The key priority groups will be able to bring more information to this discussion.

KM added that the SCoRSA Project has a face to face event on 19th March 2023 which will focus on older drivers at work and encouraging organisations to review fitness to drive in a good working context.

Members were invited to provide a Partner Update:

The chair advised that Renfrewshire Council had provided a written update advising that their Framework targets are at present good and they will be reviewing them once they receive the latest data. A number of dedicated RS engineering projects are planned by Road Safety colleagues for 2023/4. Work on 20mph and pavement parking is currently ongoing.

Work continues in Renfrewshire schools with dedicated hands-on road safety education service.

Bikeability being delivered on demand across on Renfrewshire schools.

GM updated that East Dunbartonshire are currently procuring VMS as a result of a cyclist fatality to highlight warnings to drivers. Paper is going to committee shortly on Pavement Parking and will aim to enforce from June 2024.

HW added that Transport Scotland are working with Agilysis to develop safe system training which has now been rolled out to Transport Scotland staff. Having safe system training is a world first and there will be further update as to when this training will be made available to partners. HW noted that an updated regarding the Road Safety Framework and Evaluation Fund will be provided when budgetary approval s complete.

Dumfries and Galloway Council have implemented 20 mph limits in Stranraer and Annan. TT advised they are progressing with the programme based on population size and have almost completed 20 mph limits around primary schools. Dumfries and Galloway Road Safety Partnership has been nominated to receive an award from British Horse Society.

The Road Safety Roadshow was held In April 2023 and they are planning another roadshow for next year.

LN updated that Police Scotland are reaching out to local authorities around the Be Safe Be Seen campaign. From April – September 2023, a motorcycle campaign was pushed on social media. Police Scotland continue to work with Good Egg offering car seat checks throughout Child Safety Week in May. Operation Close Pass was ran in July – August and they currently have their Get Ready For Winter programme running. Friday 1st December will see the start of the Festive Drink Drive campaign.

Scottish Fire and Rescue are involved in the North West 200 Initiative – Motorcycle event in Northern Ireland. This event includes CPR, scene safety, helmet removal if required.

South Lanarkshire Council are undertaking a number of improvements on rural network, continuing with active travel route projects and are shortly about to finalise 20 mph road assessments.

Ayrshire Roads Alliance are looking at site specific engineering interventions across both councils and are currently in phase 3 of introducing 20 mph speed limits.

Extensive Active Travel programme across both areas, which is the design and construction of shared paths. There was recently enforced closure of active travel hubs due to a loss of funding, looking at replacement programmes.

CARS Group created and have done multiple events over the past year. In August there was an older driver event, over 70 delegates attended with 30 undertaking driver assessments, there was also CPR and Defibrillator training.

A joint GRSO seminar was held in September along with a Be Bright Be Seen day in November.

FC asked if RSS will issue materials Festive season Drink & Drug campaign?

CH advised that as soon as the materials are finalised they will be circulated to all partners.

SB added that the Learner Driver Cycle Awareness Training Pilot was very successful. With no further 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. Funding from the Road Safety Evaluation Fund supported research within the public knowledge of the Highway Code, along with video survey work of 4 junctions with a view to understand the practical application of the Highway Code. Initial findings of the data is that the public believe they have good knowledge of the Highway code but isn’t translating into practical application.

Glasgow City Council added that so far this year there has been 12 fatalities, as a result of this there is now going to be a digital round table and an online survey. They have released the Lets Look Out For Each Other campaign, this is a result of the increase in road deaths and this is to highlight to all and will be covered in majority of media. Stars Programme which sees children creating short road safety films has commenced they are continuing with the 20 mph roll out and undertaking the road surveys and also the pavement parking which is currently at survey stage

Action Point 55: Members to provide written update ahead of next meeting. HW will issue to template to be completed in advance.

Owner: Hannah Wood

Action Point 56: Provide Close Pass intervention information to GM

Owner: Lorraine Napier

Action Point 57: PRIME final report to be shared

Owner: Caroline Hay

Action Point 58: Share SF&R North West 200 Initiative report and other documents

Owner: Thomas Kaey

Agenda Item 7 - AOB and Next Meeting

Chair for the next meeting is Ross McDowall – East Renfrewshire Council

KM – ScoRSA project - Trailer programme based on agricultural sector trailers are properly maintained and fit for purpose, recently there has been a drop in retest of trailers. Therefore highlighting to all and to encourage trailer testing.

There has been discussions at Falkirk Council with regards to a redevelopment of their road safety plan working with WSP.

Next Meeting – June 2024 (date tbc.)

Chair thanked all for attending and meeting brought to a close.

Action Point: N/A

Back to top

Published Date 19 Jan 2024 Type Mode of transport Topic