The Surrey County Council Conservative Group has announced further highways investment to reduce road casualties, tackle speeding and make walking, push scooting and cycling to school easier and safer.

The increased investment includes £200,000 for safety schemes which reduce the number of road casualties, £1,000,000 per year for the next three years to install more substantial speed management schemes such as average speed cameras, and £1,000,000 per year for three years to improve road safety around schools.

Cllr Matt Furniss, Cabinet Member for Transport, Infrastructure and Economy said, “We recognise that road safety and speeding, especially around schools, are major concerns for many Surrey residents. That’s why we continue to make additional investments to improve our highways and to make our roads safer for residents.”

The Surrey Conservative Group remains committed to making local roads safer and has recently announced a whole range of measures and new investment into Surrey’s highways over the next five years to keep roads moving, reduce congestion and to keep residents safe.

Notes 

• There is a backlog of suggested highway improvements at circa 50 schools across Surrey where there are some concerns over road safety and barriers to walking, push scooting or cycling on the roads in the vicinity of schools. Such improvements have been raised and assessed following the process set out in the Council’s Road Safety Outside Schools policy. Therefore, this new fund will allow for this backlog of schemes to be implemented, after which the usual £200,000 annual budget for road safety schemes described above will be increased to £500,000 to allow for ongoing investment in schemes to make walking, push scooting and cycling to school easier. Some schools that could benefit from the extra funding include St Lawrence C of E Primary, Ravenscote Junior, Send Primary, and Clarendon Primary School. A Cabinet Member report is due to be published in June for formal endorsement of the schemes to which the funding will be allocated

• The annual budget for low-cost highway safety schemes has been set at £200,000 resulting in an ongoing programme of casualty reduction schemes, with a reduction typically of 30 to 40% in the number of casualties at the treated sites

• Surrey County Council’s Leader Tim Oliver recently announced an extra £50 million investment into Surrey's Roads and Pavements. This investment is in addition to the £200 million which is already being invested in Surrey’s highways over the next five years. This will include improvements to approximately 3,000 miles of road and 180 miles of pavements, using environmentally friendly fleet, materials and construction techniques wherever possible

• Surrey County Council has recently been awarded £5,959,396 of government funding to invest in schemes that enhance walking and cycling for residents, as well as making it safer to travel around the county

This year, the Conservative Group successfully passed a motion reaffirming its support for 20mph speed limits in appropriate locations, such as residential roads, busy shopping streets and outside schools