Casualty figures will decide who gets what

The bulk of the new £100m road safety grant will be allocated on the basis of how many casualties were in each local authority area between 1994-1998 (Surveyor, 11 January).

£71.5m - three quarters of the £97m available for councils - is to be allocated to authorities for road safety needs. The remaining £25.5m is directed to councils based on the quality of their new road safety plans and past record, as judged by their annual delivery plans.

The £110m fund replaces the 'netting-off' scheme, which is being scrapped in April.   Much of the new money will go towards supporting cameras currently being operated by safety camera partnerships. But the idea is that councils are given the opportunity to fund other, non-camera based solutions too.

The total value of the fund means there is an average of £1.2m for each council or conurbation. The conurbation allocated the most was the West Midlands (£4.5m), followed by Greater Manchester (£3.5m).

Essex (£3.4m), Lancashire (£3.2m), and Kent (£3.1m) were the counties that did best, while Nottingham (£900k) led the city and unitary councils.

The grant is non-ring fenced, but DfT officials stressed that 'there remains a high expectation' that the allocations will be invested in road safety.

06.11.06 - New £4m grant scheme launched