Councils have a responsibility for road safety too, says local MP

1.13.23pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 23rd Nov 2004

Sue Doughty MP has welcomed the proposed Road Safety Bill in principle.

The Bill as trailed will increase the penalties for dangerous driving and for using vehicles in a dangerous condition; introduce statutory registration of fleet, HGV and bus and coach driver trainers; and introduce stricter penalties for speeding motorists.

Sue said:

"In principle, I welcome this Bill to ensure that people are obliged to drive safely. In the past, there have been real concerns that dangerous drivers can cause serious injury or worse to other people and get off far too lightly.

"However, road safety is not just a question of cracking down on errant motorists. We also need councils and the Highways Agency to deal with accident black spots, such as the stretch of the A281 around Shalford, Clay Lane and Farnham Road in Guildford and I am disappointed that the Bill does not place any duty on either to deal with them.

"Punishing dangerous drivers is fine, as far as it goes. But we also need to create safer driving conditions by improving the roads and improving the design of routes. It is unacceptable that, in many cases, we effectively wait for the number of accidents to pile up to a level where councils are forced to take action; we need to act earlier."