Ministers have announced 27 local schemes that will share £47.5m road safety cash - a cutback on the 45 schemes floated in last autumn's mini budget, meaning some councils have missed out.
The new cash, on top of £100m already allocated, means that the Government has still not delivered the £175m pledged in 2017 under the Safer Roads Fund, which funds improvements such as re-designing junctions and improving signage and road markings.
The selection of the 27 new schemes is based on risk data provided by the Road Safety Foundation (RSF) charity, based on the rate of killed and seriously injured (KSI) casualties.
The new cash is less than half of earlier spending under the Safer Roads Fund, which the Department for Transport (DfT) said is set to prevent around 1,450 KSIs over the next 20 years.
In a report in 2018, the RSF said the remaining £75m from the Safer Roads Fund would prevent around 1,100 KSIs.
The DfT said the £47.5m should prevent around 760 KSIs over the next 20 years, with a benefit to society of £420m. Once the schemes’ whole-life costs are factored in, the overall Benefit Cost Ratio is estimated as 7.4, meaning that for every £1 invested the societal benefit would be £7.40.
The DfT said new the cash will ‘reduce the risk of collisions, in turn reducing congestion, journey times and emissions’.
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