James Parker, Executive Officer, London Road Safety Council

james_parker_300pxJames Parker is the executive officer of the London Road Safety Council, a role he has held since 2012.  Under his stewardship the organisation has grown a reputation for the support it gives to both officers and elected members, through a progressive series of training opportunities. Previously, James worked for 29 years for the Royal Borough of Kingston in the field of road safety and sustainable travel.

Presentation: Future Provision of Road Safety ETP in London
This presentation will outline a research project funded by the Road Safety Trust which investigated current and future provision of road safety education by local authorities across London, through a series of in depth interviews with senior management and elected members.

In the context of financial cuts to local authority budgets over recent years, the London Road Safety Council (LRSC) understood that a number of authorities in London were reducing their provision of road safety education. This is against a backdrop of approximately 2,500 KSI casualties and 30,000 casualties in total on London’s roads each year.

There has been no recent methodological research into the extent and nature of road safety provision in London and this research project was an attempt to fill this gap. The LRSC intends to use the findings to lobby on issues including: greater DfT priority for road safety, including funding; improvements to motorcyclist training at a national level; and a return to national casualty reduction targets.