‘Deeds not words’ urged over city road safety emergency
‘Our roads are far too unsafe and people are losing their lives’
‘Families are being left to pick up the pieces’ after deaths and serious injuries on Liverpool’s roads, as campaigners warn the city cannot afford another round of promises without action.
Liverpool’s Greens are calling on the city to formally declare a ‘road safety emergency‘, almost six months after councillors unanimously backed a ten-point plan for safer streets, with a Liverpool Green spokesperson saying now is the time for ‘deeds not words’.
A motion going before full council on Wednesday, which has attracted cross-party support, says the level of danger on Liverpool’s roads has reached the threshold of a road safety emergency and questions the ‘lack of progress’ on implementing the Better Streets for Liverpool campaign’s ‘Ten Asks’.
The Ten Asks, which were supported unanimously by councillors in April, set out proposals including expanding 20mph limits, creating safer routes to school and improving conditions for walking and cycling, as well as measures to make junctions and crossings safer.
The new motion, proposed by Liverpool Green leader councillor Tom Crone and seconded by councillor Paul Ruddick, calls on the council to declare a road safety emergency and begin developing a plan to rapidly improve road safety.
It also calls for an immediate review of the Ten Asks and asks the council’s chief executive to write to the chief constable of Merseyside Police calling for more frequent and visible drink and drug-driving checks and greater enforcement of speed limits.
Speaking to the Monitor about the motion, Cllr Crone said recent deaths and serious injuries on Liverpool’s roads have brought home the need for greater urgency: ‘It’s seeing those shocking stories and just being reminded our roads are far too unsafe and people are losing their lives and families are being turned upside down because our roads aren’t safe enough,’ he said.
Crone said it was not about a battle between car users and pedestrians, though: ‘I’m also a driver, I’m a cyclist, I’m a pedestrian,’ he said. ‘It’s not about one team against another. It’s about making our city safer for everybody.’
Crone also spoke about the ‘transport hierarchy‘, under which vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists should be prioritised, followed by public transport and then private cars. ‘It’s the accepted wisdom of highways planning for decades,’ he said, but argued that the ‘reality on the ground’ often doesn’t reflect this.
The Greens have approached leaders of Liverpool’s other political groups and the motion has attracted cross-party support. Crone said all four leaders of the city’s other political groups have also been invited to show their support at a protest outside the town hall before Wednesday’s meeting from 4pm, ‘hopefully we’ll all be able to show that unity‘ he added.
Rebecca Sharkey, chair of Better Streets for Liverpool, who will also be attending the town hall to hear her colleague Shaun Herr speak about road safety on Wednesday and will be at the protest, told the Monitor the city needed ‘more dynamism and urgency’ on road safety.
She pointed to the first phase of Wirral’s 20mph programme, which recorded a 23% reduction in the number of people killed or seriously injured following collisions, and said Liverpool should learn from measures that had produced improvements elsewhere.
The Greens are also calling for action beyond the formal motion, calling for Liverpool Council to begin work on implementing a citywide 20mph speed limit, establish a cross-party working group to oversee the Ten Asks and for all political parties to commit to 20mph limits in their manifestos for next May’s local elections.
Although the 20mph proposal is not explicitly referenced in Wednesday’s cross party motion, it was part of the Ten Asks unanimously approved by the city‘s councillors in April.
Crone said Liverpool’s existing 20mph policy, introduced in 2013 on residential roads, had contributed to an earlier decline in deaths and serious injuries, but that progress had since stalled. ‘It’s been 13 years since the last road safety measures in Liverpool,; he said, ‘We need to look at the next stage.’
He pointed to Aigburth Road in his own ward as an example: ‘It’s such a busy road, people walking kids to schools every day, it’s a busy pedestrian space. It’s inappropriate for it to be 30mph.’
Crone also spoke of the speed limits in the city centre, which didn’t become 20mph when other residential areas did, saying recent data showed it was where many fatal and serious crashes were occurring.
‘All we can do is push for the right policies,’ he added, ‘Then we have a yardstick by which to measure… and we will certainly be holding the council to account.’
You can read more about the Green motion and all the others at this week’s full council here.
Or check out our round-up published yesterday:
Lisa Rand
