VE Day: Council duties under the Armed Forces Covenant
As we mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, Geoff Wild, Legal & Governance Consultant, looks at the duties of councils under the Armed Forces Covenant.
UK’s second ‘Dutch-style’ roundabout opens
10/12/2024 A roundabout that gives priority to cyclists and pedestrians has opened in Sheffield. |
Birmingham seeks approval for default 20mph limit
02/12/2024 Birmingham City Council has asked the Government to allow it to introduce a default 20mph speed limit. |
Pothole-related breakdowns jump by 10,000
07/10/2024 The number of pothole-related breakdowns has increased by 10,000 compared to last year, according to the AA Pothole Index. |
Londoners back Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in survey
10/09/2024 Around 70% of Londoners want more Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) and 60% agree that all roads across the city should have a 20mph speed limit, survey finds. |
Liverpool warns 40,000 drivers caught by new cameras
14/08/2024 Liverpool City Council issued 40,000 warnings to drivers caught committing moving traffic violations by new cameras in the past six months. |
Government failing to track pothole funding, auditors warn
23/07/2024 The Government does not know whether the funding it allocates to councils to fix the pothole-riddled road system is being used effectively, auditors warn. |
Lack of funding hindering road safety, councils say
19/06/2024 Limited funding and inadequate data are major barriers to road safety planning and measurement, local authorities have reported. |
RAC issues safety warning over obscured signs
07/06/2024 More than half of motorists say obscured signs are a frequent occurrence on their journeys, according to a survey by the RAC. |
Council suspends meeting amid disorder over 20mph ‘frustration’
17/05/2024 A Ramsey Town Council meeting was suspended and a man was asked to leave after the agenda descended into a heated discussion about a 20mph traffic zone. |
Council proposes nearly 30 new 20mph zones
02/05/2024 Westmorland and Furness Council has proposed rolling out nearly 30 new 20mph zones to ‘make streets safer’. |
Council chiefs call for powers to fight pavement parking ‘scourge’
12/02/2024 ‘Long-overdue’ powers to ban pavement parking should be extended to all areas across England now, the Local Government Association (LGA) has argued. |
TfL hands boroughs another £80m for streets
31/01/2024 Transport for London (TfL) has announced up to £80.4m for boroughs to improve public transport, make walking and cycling safer and create new school streets. |
First-of-kind tool links road casualties and deprivation
12/01/2024 Transport for London has launched a dashboard which shows how deprivation is linked to higher levels of death and injury on the capital’s roads. |
Road sign rules changed to protect hedgehogs
21/12/2023 Rules around the wildlife warning signs on roads are set to be relaxed to make it easier for local authorities to alert drivers to the presence of hedgehogs. |
Acrospire donate solar-powered luminaires to Bishops Castle Council
05/12/2023 Acrospire has donated three solar-powered lanterns to Bishops Castle Town Council in memory of Dylan Price who was tragically lost in a hit-and-run collision. |
Council's failure to fix pothole blamed for man’s death
17/10/2023 A man died after falling from his bike when it entered a crack in the road that had been identified to Lancashire County Council, a coroner has found. |
Pedestrian crossings lights could stay green longer
25/07/2023 Active Travel England (ATE) is considering introducing new guidance for councils that could increase the amount of time people have to cross the road. |
Charity calls for more 20mph near schools
14/06/2023 A road safety charity has called on local authorities to implement 20mph speed limits around all schools. |
Campaign to discourage speeding on rural roads launched
06/03/2023 Government has launched a road safety campaign to raise awareness of risks when speeding or driving too fast for road conditions, especially on rural roads. |
Building a robust pothole-related injury legal defence
25/01/2023 Ravinder Johal, a partner at law firm Shakespeare Martineau, discusses the importance of a robust legal defence in the face of personal injury claims. |
Cyclists warned to steer clear of pothole-ridden roads
23/01/2023 A bicycle insurance company has called for the crumbling road network to be fixed, citing data showing that 21% of cyclists have hit a pothole. |
Council’s wavy road marking scheme branded ‘bizarre’
17/01/2023 A local authority in Somerset has defended itself against accusations that its new road safety scheme is ‘bizarre’ and could prove to be a risk to drivers. |
Council seeks court order to crack down on ‘street cruising’
22/12/2022 Birmingham City Council is seeking a High Court order to ban street cruising from all city roads. |
Engineering safety into roadworks during the winter months
29/11/2022 Ben Duncker discusses the safety measures local authorities need to consider when planning winter road maintenance and upgrade works. |
Glasgow council first to install cycle-activated signs
11/10/2022 Glasgow City Council has taken the innovative step of installing cycle-activated electronic signage on its road network to improve safety for cyclists. |
Oxfordshire proposes traffic filters for Oxford
31/08/2022 Oxfordshire County Council is to launch a consultation on proposals to introduce six trial traffic filters in Oxford. |
Shapps proposes 20mph speed limits for cyclists
17/08/2022 The Government is considering introducing 20mph speed limits for cyclists in urban areas. |
UK first as Surrey plans speed reduction trials on 60mph roads
09/08/2022 Surrey County Council has announced plans to pilot speed limits of 20mph and 30mph on roads that were previously 60mph, in what is thought to be a UK first. |
Council reduces speed limit on over 700 roads
13/05/2022 Cornwall Council is reducing the speed limit on hundreds of residential roads from 30mph to 20mph. |
Portsmouth crossing lights a ‘national first’
22/11/2021 A Portsmouth crossing is the first in the UK to benefit from an innovative new lighting system aimed at improving safety. |
Index reveals 40,000 unnecessary road deaths
18/11/2021 There have been an estimated 40,000 unnecessary deaths and serious injuries on Britain’s roads over the past decade, new research has revealed. |
Glasgow City Council launches road safety plan
25/08/2021 Glasgow City Council has launched a new road safety plan that they hope will reduce fatalities and serious injuries to zero by 2030. |
Khan launches ‘world-leading’ scheme to get dangerous lorries off the road
30/10/2019 The mayor of London has launched a scheme to remove ‘the most dangerous’ Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) from the capital’s streets. |
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Scotland's 20mph roll-out suffers blow
03/06/2019 A national roll-out of 20mph speed limits in Scotland has suffered a blow after a key committee refused to recommend the bill. |
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Councils take ‘risk-based’ approach to filling in potholes
18/01/2019 Councils are increasingly adopting a ‘risk-based’ approach to filling in potholes, an analysis of council response times to calls about road defects has found. |
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Survey reveals ‘concerns’ over road sign legislation
22/10/2018 The majority of those working in the road signs industry have concerns with the new legislation governing the designs and conditions of use for traffic signs. |
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Gloucestershire appoints Ringway to deliver £245m infrastructure contract
25/09/2018 Gloucestershire County Council has appointed Ringway Infrastructure Services to deliver a new multi-million pound highways maintenance contract for the county. |
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New service to help councils manage roadworks
03/09/2018 Local authorities will be able to accurately record and share data on roadworks, after the Government pledged to invest up to £10m in a new digital system. |
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Whitehall not doing ‘nearly enough’ to tackle pothole epidemic
24/08/2018 The Government is not doing ‘nearly enough’ to improve the state of the roads in the UK, road users say. |
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Council chiefs call for ‘real investment’ to fix local roads
23/04/2018 Local authority leaders have called for ‘real investment’ into local roads as new research reveals drivers spent one million years on the road in 2016. |
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‘Urgent action’ needed to cut accidents, road safety group says
21/11/2017 Car crash deaths and injuries on the 10 most improved roads in Britain fell by 74% saving £17m, according to the Road Safety Foundation. |
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Westminster rolls out 20mph trial
06/09/2017 The City of Westminster is rolling out 20mph speed limits this week in order to promote walking and cycling, and protect vulnerable road users. |
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London must improve road safety for motorcyclists, assembly says
03/03/2016 Transport planners in London must do more to tackle a rising tide of motorcyclist deaths and injuries, the capital's assembly has demanded. |
