Contribution
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Jardine. I congratulate the hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury (Aphra Brandreth) on securing this debate, and thank her for raising the vitally important issue of road safety around schools. She spoke powerfully and movingly on behalf of her constituents.
I thank the hon. Member for sharing the devastating story of the fatal collision outside the King’s school in her constituency. My sympathies go out to the family of the young person who lost his life, and to his friends, everyone at the school and the wider community. My hon. Friend the Member for Chester North and Neston (Samantha Dixon), who is here, has also met the family, who are her constituents, and is working with them and with her neighbour, the hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury—on a cross-party basis, which is wonderful to see—to ensure that local partners work together to improve safety on the Wrexham Road.
I too have met many families with tragic stories of loved ones being killed and seriously injured in road traffic collisions. It is a position that no family should find themselves in: every death on our roads could and should be avoided. Every child has the right to be safe on their journey to and from school, and their parents should know that they will come home safely every day. That is why improving road safety, including the safety of children, is one of the highest priorities of my Department, and we intend to act to prevent road deaths and serious injuries.
A number of hon. Members talked about action to reduce speed, such as lowering speed limits and enforcing speed limits, including with speed cameras. The enforcement of road traffic law and deployment of available police resources are responsibilities of individual chief constables and police and crime commissioners, who take into account the specific local problems and demands that they face.
Local government is the main delivery body for road safety. Under section 39 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, local authorities have a statutory duty to take steps to both reduce and prevent collisions, and they have the power to set speed limits on their roads, including 20 mph limits and 20 mph zones. It is for them to determine what measures are appropriate in individual cases because they have local knowledge of their roads, but any authority that wishes to install such schemes has my Department’s full backing.
I understand that resources for local authorities are finite, and it is right that they focus on the areas of highest risk, which may be where fatal collisions have occurred, but there is nothing to stop them implementing road safety measures elsewhere, including places about which local communities have raised concerns, or where there have been near misses. My hon. Friends the hon. Members for Harlow (Chris Vince) and for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) rightly highlighted that point.
Local authorities also have the tools to improve safety outside schools, including reduced speed limits, traffic calming measures or, where appropriate, a school street. I welcome the support expressed by hon. Members today and agree that sharing good practice can be very helpful. I will certainly look at what more my Department can do, perhaps with the Local Government Association and others. Local councils want to make decisions about local implementation, in consultation with local communities and the local police. They know their roads best, and I simply cannot and should not dictate to them from Westminster. However, the hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury made a powerful case for lower speed limits outside schools. Both she and the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) noted that we all make mistakes, and that collisions at higher speeds are much more likely to have tragic outcomes.
I agree that partnerships are essential, and that they should be looking at local-level interventions to make our roads safer. While local authorities are free to make their own decisions about the design of the streets under their care, provided they take account of the relevant legislation and guidance, they are rightly accountable to local people for those decisions. The Department will look at what more we can do to support them, and we stand ready to work with all those working to improve road safety at the local level.
On the tragic collision involving the young constituent of my hon. Friend the Member for Chester North and Neston, the Department is aware that Cheshire West and Chester council has already indicated that it has commissioned an independent review of Wrexham Road close to King’s school, and I am sure that it will listen to today’s debate and take note of the community’s petition.
Let me turn to some of the wider issues around road safety and schools. This Government are setting our sights high on active travel, whether that means walking, wheeling or cycling. We are committed to promoting greener journeys, no matter how people choose to travel. It is key to improving public health; by preventing illness, rather than just treating it, we can make a real difference. The biggest gains come from helping inactive people to get moving, which is why we are focused on breaking down barriers for those who need it most and do not have options, such as older people, disabled people and children.
For children, early habits matter. That is why, in November 2024, Active Travel England and the Department published school streets guidance. As hon. Members have noted, these schemes do not just make school runs safer; they build lifelong habits of active travel.