New plan to tackle speeding in Sunderland and its North East neighbours

Council chiefs are hoping to bring forward plans in the coming months for a new road safety partnership aiming to help tackle issues such as speeding.

Sunderland City Council transport officers have outlined how talks are continuing around the reintroduction of a Northumbria Road Safety Partnership.

The collaboration between the police and six local authorities in the Northumbria force area will aim to “provide stability and help ensure regional road safety activities are effectively coordinated and funded.”

The latest meeting of the city council’s economic prosperity scrutiny committee heard the partnership will help carry out steps such as getting more speed cameras for the area.

Paul Muir, city council transport development group engineer, speaking at the meeting, said they hope to have a report going to the city council’s cabinet to enter the arrangement in the “next couple of months.”

He said: “It’s going to be going to cabinet to endorse the entering of the partnership and then the release of funds to start the procurement process.

“The establishment of the new partnership, there will be a legal agreement associated with that which will explain how it all operates.”

He added they already “do have a lot of requests by members for sites within Sunderland” where measures could be implemented to help tackle speeding.

Mr Muir continued: “The reality is probably not that number will be delivered initially because like everything it’s about budget.

“But it’ll start within a budget and then grow, and what we’ll have to do is look at it from an evidence basis in terms of sites to put forward with the police.

“We’ll look at the data from existing traffic speeds and see what the issues are.”

He added he expects the remaining issues and legal issues “will be resolved in spring this year”, which would then lead to the procurement process “probably starting in the summer”, subject to approval from local authority cabinets.

Officers also told the meeting current Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness “has been very supportive” and they are currently “the closest we’ve ever been in terms of getting it past the post”

A report from officers noted Gateshead Council is the lead authority coordinating the piece of work, adding it has “taken a long period of time to resolve given the number of parties involved and necessary legal process.”

In the meantime, officers noted Sunderland City Council’s road safety team continue to work closely with the road respect campaign run by Northumbria Safer Roads Initiative as part of its “ongoing commitment to improving road safety throughout the city for both its residents and visitors.”

The initiative also works to educate drivers about road safety issues and aims to help reduce vehicle speeds where appropriate and raise people’s awareness of road conditions.

The comments all came at the meeting at Sunderland City Hall on Tuesday, January 9.