Agenda item

This Council notes that: 

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1.    That speeding fines across England generate around £100 million per year, all of which is paid directly to HM Treasury, with no share returned to local authorities.

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1 That revenue from fixed penalties issued through speed enforcement is paid into the Consolidated Fund.

2.    That councils are responsible for maintaining highways, improving road safety, delivering traffic calming schemes, and responding to persistent community concerns about speeding and dangerous driving.

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3.    That local authorities frequently fund enforcement infrastructure – such as average speed cameras, ANPR enforcement points, signage, and engineering works – yet receive no income from the fines issued as a result of these measures.

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3.      That local authorities invest in road safety measures, including traffic calming, crossings, signage, engineering works and, where appropriate, speed enforcement infrastructure, but face competing demands for the funding required to deliver these measures.

4.      That Rotherham Council has started to apply more focus to this area, committing £160,000 to develop Ward Road Safety Plans across all 25 wards. These identify local concerns and develop a pipeline of capital road safety schemes and this Council welcomes and supports this work.

5.      That speeding enforcement activity can fluctuate significantly. South Yorkshire Police recorded 78,438 speeding Notices of Intended Prosecution in 2023, 61,703 in 2024 and 81,554 in 2025.

6.      That communities across the borough consistently call for greater investment in traffic calming, crossings, school street safety, and active travel protection.

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4.That the South Yorkshire Safety Camera Partnership brings together law enforcement agencies and local councils across the region. However, Council also notes that there are currently no robust mechanisms for elected members to direct the placement of safety cameras within their wards. This leads to a mismatch between public and elected member perceptions of the need for enforcement activities and the observed locations of mobile cameras.

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7.    That elected members and local communities have an important role in identifying locations of concern, while decisions on enforcement and the appropriate road safety intervention should be based upon evidence and risk.

This Council believes:

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1.      That a fairer national funding model is required to ensure that money  raised from speeding offences is reinvested into the communities where those offences occur.

2.      That enabling councils to retain a proportion of speeding fine revenue would create a stable, locally controlled funding stream for road safety improvements.

3.      That ring fencing such funding would directly support the Council’s objectives to reduce casualties, protect vulnerable road users, and improve public confidence in local road safety.

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1.     That the consequences of speeding and unsafe roads are experienced locally, and communities should have the resources necessary to address those problems.

2.     That the purpose of speeding fines should be to deter speeding and improve road safety, not to provide a source of revenue upon which either central or local government becomes financially dependent.

3.     That Rotherham needs a clear, long-term and guaranteed road safety funding stream to enable the Council to actually deliver its Ward Road Safety Plans and other schemes.

4.     That road safety funding should follow evidence of need and risk rather than the number of fines issued.

5.     That successful enforcement should reduce speeding and therefore reduce fine income; it should not also reduce the resources available to make roads safer.

6.     That delivery of Rotherham’s Ward Road Safety Plans should not depend upon annual fluctuations in enforcement activity, the number or location of active cameras, the number of offences detected or how individual offences are disposed of.

7.     That enforcement activity and the deployment of cameras should be determined by road safety evidence and risk, not by their potential to generate revenue.

8.     That greater devolution provides an opportunity to give Rotherham the long-term funding certainty required to deliver locally identified road safety priorities.

9.     That enforcement has an important role in road safety, alongside highway design and engineering measures which encourage safe and appropriate speeds.

Therefore, this Council resolves to: 

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1.    Write to HM Government, the Secretary of State for Transport, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer requesting that:

a.      Local authorities receive 50% of the annual revenue generated from  speeding fines issued within their area; and

b.      This funding be ring fenced exclusively for road safety improvements, including average speed cameras, engineering measures, enforcement support, school safety schemes, and active travel protection.

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1.   Write to HM Government, the Secretary of State for Transport and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and through No.10 North, calling for a clear, long-term and guaranteed devolved road safety funding settlement, with a fair and transparent needs-based allocation to Rotherham, to enable the Council to deliver evidence-led schemes identified through its Ward Road Safety Plans.

2.    Write to the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime for South Yorkshire to  request that robust mechanisms are put in place to allow elected members  to better direct enforcement action within their wards.

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3.    Request that the Local Government Association (LGA) and the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority support this call for reform and lobby Government for a fairer distribution of speeding fine revenue.

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3      Request that the Local Government Association and the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority support the call for a clear, long-term and guaranteed devolved road safety funding settlement based upon evidence of need and risk and ask the Mayor of South Yorkshire and the Leader of Rotherham Council to make representations to Government in support of this approach.

4      Investigate the feasibility of procuring mobile pairs of average speed cameras that could be deployed across different streets in Rotherham to encourage behaviour change, improve compliance with speed limits, and increase awareness of the consequences of dangerous driving.