Over £6m of additional funding will be dedicated to improving road safety around schools, making walking and cycling safer, and to tackle speeding at known collision hotspots across the county over the next three years.

The new funding for a range of highways improvements, will be allocated as follows:

• £1m per year to improve road safety and encourage more walking and cycling, around schools – improvements will include new crossing points, 20mph speed limits, introducing “school streets” pedestrian zones, installing more yellow lines and safer access routes to cycle paths
• £1m per year to help tackle speeding – measures to deter speeding will include highway schemes and speed cameras including average speed cameras that have proven very effective in reducing speeds and collisions. Reducing speed limits on rural roads in the south of Surrey will also continue to be progressed
• £200,000 for highway improvements – to reduce the risk of collisions at known hotspots. Previous improvements have typically led to a 30 – 40% reduction in the number of road casualties.

Matt Furniss, Cabinet Member for Transport, Infrastructure and Economy said, “We recognise that road safety and reducing speeding, especially around schools, are matters our residents want to see prioritised.

“As a council we are continually looking at ways to keep Surrey’s roads moving, reduce congestion and to keep residents safe.

“This significant additional investment will enable us to install important safety measures around our schools which we hope will also encourage more cycling, walking and scooting to school to help reduce carbon emissions and congestion at the same time.”

This additional funding comes from the council’s medium term ‘capital’ budget and is an extra commitment on top of the £62m the Council is spending on Highways and Transport this financial year in its ‘revenue’ budget.