Time was called this week on rogue clampers, unending road works and unnecessary speed cameras. Mid Sussex MP, Nicholas Soames, has added his voice to new Conservative plans to cut congestion and disruption on the roads, while improving road safety.

A new blueprint for a Conservative Government to help improve local roads includes:

• Improving safety by switching from installing new fixed speed cameras to alternative road safety measures, such as Vehicle Activated Signs and better education.

• Scrapping unaccountable speed camera quangos and publishing the revenue raised from each existing individual camera. 

• Setting clearer rules on the timing of traffic lights, to address concerns about traffic lights settings being covertly changed by highways authorities so they are constantly on red.

• Cracking down on rogue wheel clampers, which is a particular problem on private land.

• Freeing councils to pilot innovative schemes, like ‘turn left on red’ for cyclists.

• Reducing the congestion caused by road works and motorway closures following accidents.

Nicholas Soames said; “Under this Government, getting around has become a daily grind. Law-abiding drivers have to avoid endless road works, rogue clampers extorting cash and speed cameras designed to raise money rather than improve safety.

“We will use practical, common sense measures to tackle the congestion that is impacting on the local economy. There should be more openness on how transport decisions are made that affect people’s lives, and greater use of technology like Vehicle Activated Signs to cut speeding. It’s time for change to get Sussex moving.”

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Notes

Conservatives have published new plans to make car journey times more reliable and make roads safer:

MAKING OUR ROADS SAFER

• Switching to better alternatives to fixed speed cameras: A Conservative Government will promote a switch to alternative ways to make our roads safer such as improved education and vehicle activated signs which have proven effectiveness. For example, we will issue clear guidance to local authorities which will prevent installing new fixed speed cameras unless they can clearly show that a new camera is better than alternative road safety policies. Even if these tests are passed, any new fixed speed camera will have to be funded locally and not using the road safety grant from central government.

For example, the Government’s Road Safety Good Practice Guide states that Vehicle Activated Signs (VAS) can be more effective than fixed speed cameras. A single VAS can prevent, on average, 3.1 accidents per annum, as opposed to 2.2 for a fixed speed camera (House of Commons Transport Select Committee, Roads Policing and Technology; Getting the right balance, 2006, Ev 158).

A Government study concluded that: VAS are very effective in reducing speeds and cut the number of drivers who exceed the speed limit “without the need for enforcement such as safety cameras”; VAS are an “ideal road safety measure” because they are low cost, low maintenance, self enforcing with high compliance, and do not reduce in effectiveness over time; and VAS are valuable because “inappropriate speed for conditions is more likely to be a factor in accidents than speed in excess of the limit” and “encouraging drivers to make sensible speed choices with regard to local conditions is particularly important since driver error is the major contributory factors in 95 per cent of road accidents” (Transport Research Laboratory, Large Scale Evaluation of Vehicle Activated Signs, 2002).

• No funding for new fixed speed cameras: Central government will not pay for new fixed speed cameras. Local authorities will only be able to put up new fixed speed cameras if they use their own funding (and also meet the preconditions above). All fines will continue to go the Treasury, as is currently the case.

• Scrapping the speed camera quangos: We will scrap the bureaucratic Safety Camera Partnerships. Local authorities and the police in each area will need to return to more slimline cooperation arrangements, with the local authority taking a lead on the location and running of cameras. The police’s operational responsibility for legal enforcement and issuing tickets will be unchanged.

• Lifting the lid on fixed speed cameras: Local authorities will be required to publish an annual report accounting for the use of each camera, the alternatives considered, and the fines collected. This information is currently collected by Safety Camera Partnerships, but Labour have allowed them to keep it secret. By freeing this data, local people will have the knowledge they need to campaign on whether individual cameras should stay or be replaced with other road safety measures.

• Average speed cameras: We will put a stop to Labour’s planned extensive roll-out of average speed cameras across all roads. Use of average speed cameras should be very limited and targeted on major roads and motorways and then only where there is a specific road safety need which cannot be effectively met using other means. For example, we expect average speed cameras to continue to be used to enforce reduced speed limits during motorway road works but we will stop the roll-out of average speed cameras on urban roads.

MORE RELIABLE JOURNEY TIMES & LESS HASSLE

• More decentralisation and flexibility: We will give greater freedom to local authorities to innovate and run pilot schemes on smoothing traffic flow and using road space more efficiently.

• Congestion caused by traffic lights: We will make highways authorities set clear criteria on the siting and timing of traffic lights. We will then require them to publish this information with any supporting statistics and audits they have carried out. This will give people the chance to understand and influence the decisions that affect their daily commute.

• Congestion caused by collisions: We will work with the police on ways to reduce incident clear-up times on motorways and to ensure the impact of disruption is fully taken into account when decisions are made on road closures. We will seek to improve the use of the electronic signs on our motorways, for example, to divert traffic away from closures. We will consider whether examples of good practice from the railways and the British Transport Police, which involve senior officers in decisions to close major routes, can be used in the context of motorway clear-up. We will require information on the duration of any closures to be published annually to open this issue up to public scrutiny.

• Congestion caused by road works: We will increase the maximum level of fines for over-running road works and speed up the delivery of permitting schemes (the current rules only require utilities to give notice of work rather than apply for a permit to carry them out at a certain time). We will give local authorities the power to put tougher restrictions on work on key routes, including piloting lane rental so utilities firms will have to pay a rental fee for they time they occupy the road. We will also introduce a national code of conduct for those who dig up our roads, drawing on the code successfully agreed in London, to cover issues including signage, inspection, deliveries and the removal of spoil outside peak times.

• Cracking down on rogue clampers: We will force clampers to abide by a strict code of conduct covering penalties, release fees, conditions for towing (e.g. the time between clamping and towing), and which outlaws linking staff salaries or bonuses to the amount of fines collected. Each firm will also have to be part of an officially recognised trade association, such as the British Parking Association, who will be required to censure or suspend membership from firms who deviate from this code. And we will give drivers access to an independent appeals process. We will also retain the option to ban clamping on private land altogether if cowboy clampers show that they are unwilling or unable to operate within this new regime.