Lancashire County Council to use new temporary road signs

The council's cabinet, which met on Thursday, July 11, outlined guidance on how the borough's road safety team will deploy new signs that will help drivers monitor their speeds better to make roads safer in Lancashire.

County Councillor Rupert Swarbrick, cabinet member for highways and transport, said: "People should always report incidents of excessive speed or dangerous and inconsiderate driving to the police, who are responsible for enforcing speed limits, and dealing with incidents on our roads.

"As the highway authority for Lancashire, the county council also has a role in making our roads safer by educating drivers about speeding.

"One of our key tools is the use of temporary signs to highlight known issues and complement police enforcement where an assessment has shown there is a problem, which have been shown to be an effective way of influencing driver behaviour.

"Adopting this guidance as policy will aid transparency about the circumstances where we use these signs, and help people better understand the county council's role in managing speeding issues."

This includes signs that flash-up drivers' speed, large electronic message boards which display advice and warnings, and smaller educational signs which can be attached to street furniture such as lampposts.

The guidance sets out how the council assesses speeding concerns, and the criteria used to decide what measure to take, depending on the level of risk highlighted.

Councillors agreed to adopt the guidance as policy.

Last month, a road safety charity called for measures to end speeding traffic around schools in East Lancashire, as parents reported 'roads aren’t safe for their children to walk or wheel to school'.

According to new research published by road safety charity, Brake, latest official figures for child casualties on the nation's roads show that 6,075 primary school age children were harmed on UK roads in 2022.