Extra funding for city centre road safety

Labour City Councillors are welcoming extra investment from the government to improve road safety in the heart of the city.

The Department for Transport has granted the city an extra £771,000 as part of a 1m road safety programme that will specifically tackle one of the 5 high risk sites across the city.

The route from the Old Steine, St James’ Street, Castle Square, North Street and Clock Tower has seen a total of 88 collisions and 102 casualties between 2003 – 2005. The road safety measures to address this will be devised via a partnership that will include Brighton & Hove Bus Company, HM Coroner, Sussex Police, the community and traders as well as the city council.

The intended benefits of the new scheme will be to

• Reduce collisions between pedestrians and buses by 30%
• Reduce emergency stops by buses by improving the observation behaviour of pedestrians.

Labour Leader Cllr Gill Mitchell said:
“This new money from the government will make all the difference in terms of the city centre getting the very best in road safety design and will also allow an education and publicity programme to be developed which is key to moderating pedestrian’s behaviour in our more crowded areas.”