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ITEM BV15
BEST VALUE
COMMITTEE – 10 DECEMBER 2003
BEST VALUE
REVIEW OF ROAD CASUALTY REDUCTION
Report by
the Director for Environment & Economy
Introduction
- At the meeting
on 18 June 2003, this Committee agreed to a Best Value review programme
for the next two years, including a provisional programme for 2004/05.
For Environment & Economy that programme included a review of Customer
Services in 2003/04 and Road Casualty Reduction in 2004/05. There was
member discussion at that meeting about switching the order of reviews
but the importance of the Customer Service Review to changing the culture
within the Council overall was accepted by the Committee and the recommended
programme was agreed.
- At the meeting
on 22 October 2003 the Committee expressed the view that the review
of Road Casualty reduction should now be brought forward and asked officers
to report to this meeting on how this could be achieved.
The Importance
of Reviewing Road Casualty Reduction
- This review is
seen as being extremely important and was originally suggested by the
Directorate. The responsibility for Road Safety has been changed as
part of the Directorate’s restructuring, being linked to Transport Planning
to ensure a stronger strategic input.
- The proposed review
will provide an opportunity to analyse road casualty trends in more
detail than has been undertaken to date. Attached at Annex 1 (download
as .doc file) is recent information about trends that the Committee
may find helpful. While this provides no grounds for complacency, it
does illustrate that the worrying increase in road deaths this year
does not reflect a broader trend, and that overall levels of road casualties
continue to decline.
- There is a desire
for the review to be wide and thorough and for it to be done well. In
order to ensure the effectiveness of the review we would wish to involve
a broad range of stakeholders, including fire, police and health services
as well as road safety and motoring organisations. It is clear that
members are keen to be involved.
Proposed
Timetable
- Key issues affect
the timing of the review include:
- The Transport
Division has undergone a restructuring following the setting up of
the new Directorate. This includes a Head of Transport and three Assistant
Heads, one of whom will be responsible for Road Safety. Implementation
of the new structure is still in transition at this time.
- The new Head
of Service for Transport (David McKibbin) is due to start in January
2004. At the time of writing two of the three Assistant Heads were
in their roles on an acting basis. This may have been resolved by
the time of the meeting;
- Ensuring adequate
availability of key staff to ensure full justice is done to the review
given other pressures on staff time, including the Audit Commission
Environment Assessment and the current best value review of Customer
Services
- Taking into account
member wishes to start the process earlier, alongside the issues highlighted
above it is proposed that this review could adopt the following timescale:
Scoping
the review Jan – Mar 2004
Specification
to Committee 14 April 2004
Review
research phase April – Sept 2004
Option
Evaluation Oct – Nov 2004
Final
report to Committee 1 December 2004
- It may seem to
members that it will be a long time before the review makes recommendations.
However, it should be remembered that work is ongoing on road safety
in any event and that action can be taken where appropriate prior to
formal reporting.
- The revised timing
also fits well with the timetable for the next Local Transport Plan.
This needs to be submitted in 2005 and completion of the review in 2004
will enable the outcome to be fed into this process.
- In terms of programming
the work the difficult period is between January and March where we
are scoping the review. However, it is proposed to accommodate the work
by reviewing priorities in both the Directorate and within the Performance
& Review Unit.
RECOMMENDATIONS
- The Committee
is RECOMMENDED to agree that the review of Road Casualty Reduction should
proceed in accordance with the proposed timetable contained in the report.
RICHARD
DUDDING
Director for
Environment & Economy
Background
Papers: Report to Best Value Committee on 18 June 2003
Contact
Officer Paul Gerrish Tel (01865) 815710
November
2003
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