Issue - meetings

To consider the report of the Executive Director of Policy, Strategy and Government Relations and Portfolio Holder: Transport and Air Quality.

The Combined Authority considered a report of the Executive Director Policy, Strategy and Government Relations and Portfolio Holder: Transport and Air Quality which presented a new Road Safety Strategy for the City Region which would guide the work of the Merseyside Road Safety Partnership.

Metro Mayor Rotheram explained that the Strategy was centred on the principle that all road users had the right to navigate the transport networks safely.  Deaths and serious injuries on the road were preventable and were neither acceptable nor inevitable. Its objective was to reduce the number and severity of road traffic collisions, working to an overall Vision Zero target that by 2040 no-one would be killed or seriously injured on the roads in the Liverpool City Region.

Councillor Liam Robinson, Portfolio Holder: Transport and Air Quality advised that the Strategy aimed to bring forward a new Road Safety Strategy for the Liverpool City Region and adopted an ambitious aspiration of the Vision Zero approach that avoidable road deaths and injuries should be reduced to the absolute minimum and he very much wanted to thank all the partners involved. Councillor Robinson particularly acknowledged the energy the Police and Crime Commissioner brought to adopting this ambitious approach.

In conclusion, Councillor Robinson advised that subject to Combined Authority approval, the next stage would be to develop a detailed delivery and action plan. The Plan would monitor those actions to ensure that they were taken forward and delivered. It was therefore proposed to produce an annual report so it could be monitored very closely.

Merseyside Police and Crime Commissioner and Combined Authority Portfolio Holder Crime and Community Safety for Spurrell echoed the comments already made and emphasised the importance of the Strategy and therefore she had made it a priority for the Police. It was noted that this was not something that could be achieved alone it had to have a partnership approach. The strategy was ambitious, but she was of the opinion that all road deaths were preventable.

RESOLVED that the new Liverpool City Region Road Safety Strategy as set out in Appendix 1 be approved.