GREEN campaigners have called on local transport chiefs to concentrate on improving road safety rather than building more bypasses.

Next week county councillors will decide which transport scheme to adopt for the next five years as part of the Lancashire Local Transport Plan.

But Lancaster's Greens believes the county should prioritise saving lives over building new bypasses by adopting an innovative new road safety project called the "Victoria Initiative."

The Government has advised all local authorities that they are unlikely to be awarded funding for more than one "major scheme" (costing over £5 million). Emily Heath, a Lancaster Green councillor, said: "It has always been assumed that Lancashire's major scheme will be a new bypass, but all four of the short-listed road schemes carry significant problems such as huge expense, environmental damage, potential for generating even more road traffic and lack of county-wide public support. "We believe that it would be much more beneficial and cost-effective to prioritise a major road safety project instead, to drastically reduce the number of road casualties throughout Lancashire."

Lancashire County Council has already developed plans for an innovative road safety project called the Victoria Initiative, based on a highly successful scheme in Australia. The initiative addresses driver behaviour and attitudes through a combination of education, enforcement and engineering, with the aim of reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured on Lancashire's roads by at least a third over five years. It is estimated to cost around £6.3 million.

Emily Heath added: "The Victoria Initiative is an excellent idea. If the county council makes it a major scheme in the Local Transport Plan it will send out a clear message that Lancashire is serious about safe, sustainable transport, and it will be sure to win Government funding. The choice is simple: save hundreds of lives across the whole county by supporting the Victoria Initiative, or save a few minutes on journeys through one small area by building a bypass!"