Lack of fall in road deaths over the last decade is 'shocking', police and crime commissioner says

The lack of improvement in the number of road deaths per year in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is “shocking”, the region’s Police and Crime Commissioner has said.

Darryl Preston, whose role as commissioner includes holding Cambridgeshire’s police force to account, said that “we’re still not seeing a drop in fatalities on our roads” and that it’s something his office “will be looking at” in future.

Department for Transport (DfT) statistics suggest that there was an average of 4.76 road deaths or serious injuries per 10,000 people in Cambridgeshire in the last reporting period (2019-21); the figure for Peterborough was 4.53.

These figures, which have remained largely unchanged over the last decade, put both areas in the highest 25 per cent of local authority areas in England for serious collisions: Cambridgeshire had the 29th most out of 147 areas and Peterborough the 37th most out of 147.

The issue was raised by Edward Leigh, a current member and former chair of the region’s police and crime panel, at its annual general meeting this week; he told Mr Preston that the Vision Zero Partnership – aimed at reducing road deaths and made up of multiple councils and emergency services – appears to be “under-delivering”.

“I’m not sure whether the partnership can be said to be functioning effectively,” he added, with road death statistics “at best, flat”.

“Someone needs to take a lead on rebooting Vision Zero to make sure it has clear objectives and a clear governance structure to achieve them,” he continued. “At the moment it doesn’t feel like it does.”

Mr Preston said that he “can’t disagree” with this and that the lack of improvement is “something we really need to address as it is quite shocking”.

Demand for support for sexual abuses ‘horrifying’

Mr Leigh also said that it’s “horrifying” that there’s such high demand for support among survivors of sexual violence; one of a series of reports on the Police and Crime Commissioner’s work presented to the panel says that the Cambridge and Peterborough Rape Crisis Partnership supported 1,497 adult and 385 young survivors of rape and sexual abuse last year.

This “needs to be shouted loud”, Mr Leigh said, as “I don’t think the general population understands how big that problem is”.

Mr Preston agreed that it’s a “top priority” for him, but added that he believes the numbers have gotten so high because more people feel confident enough to come forward and report sexual abuse.

“I suspect it was far worse at one point,” he said.

Commissioner also gives updates on police vetting and 999 calls

Mr Preston also confirmed at the meeting that all Cambridgeshire police officers have now been checked against national police databases; in January, it was announced that all police in the country would be vetted again after Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick was discovered to be a prolific sex offender.

Mr Preston said that no issues were identified in Cambridgeshire and that he himself also went through the vetting process.

He also confirmed, through the series of reports presented to the board, that his office received £9.6m more funding in April 2022 to March 2023 than in the previous year, bringing the total to £174m.

This is likely due, in part, to the increase in the policing element of council tax in that year: it rose by £9.99 per year for Band D properties.

Meanwhile, 999 calls have increased in the region over the last year – by six per cent – with an average of 428 calls a day recorded in March 2023: the highest number on record in the last nine years.

The force has also seen an increase in the daily average of people using its online webchat service with an average of 96 people per day recorded in March.

Mr Preston is now three years into his four year term as commissioner. Elections for the role will be held in May 2024.