Selby Times - September 2025

Few issues are of greater significance to local people across the Selby area than road safety. Making our roads safe is all the more important as we mourn former Riccall Councillor, John Duggan, who tragically lost his life in a collision on the A19 last month. In 2023 and 2024, 83 people lost their lives on roads across North Yorkshire, and many of these fatalities will have been preventable. I want to use my column this month to explain why this is so important to me, and to provide an update on some of the main things I think we need to see change about road safety in our county.

My approach to road safety is based on strongly held convictions. First, that calls for road safety improvements are to the benefit of everyone in our community, including drivers, pedestrians and vulnerable road users. Second, that a single road death in our county is one too many, and that as elected representatives we have a duty to do everything we can to make our roads safe. Of course, part of this responsibility sits with individuals - all of us should drive responsibility and recognise that saving a few seconds is really not worth the risk when lives are at stake. But it's also important too that politicians don't shy away from our responsibilities, to deliver investment in road safety measures, to put tough penalties in place for careless or dangerous driving and to educate new drivers about the risks of doing so.

As an MP, it is my responsibility to fight for action in Westminster. When I was first elected, I used the first debate I secured in Parliament to discuss road safety in our county. Today, the Government is legislating on a national road safety strategy, which will give the Department for Transport the funding it needs to make this issue a priority. I am advocating for better funding for our local roads, both for road safety infrastructure like the pedestrian crossing in Monk Fryston, but also for investment in maintenance to repair potholes, which are as much a danger for drivers and cyclists as they are an annoyance. The responsibility for maintaining the public highway here in Selby sits with North Yorkshire Council, who I engage with constantly to make an evidence-based case for improvements.

It makes little sense to me that North Yorkshire is the only county in England which doesn't have fixed speed cameras. The reality is that we know which stretches of road are impacted by speeding, and fixed cameras deliver a permanent, effective deterrent. I don't want to see our area covered with speed cameras, but where there's a demand from local people to see speeding tackled then of course they should be used if appropriate, and I'm calling on North Yorkshire Police to step up their efforts to roll them out where they're wanted and needed. Mobile vans, whilst better than nothing, are often less effective because they can't be in all the places they need to be at once, and I've heard the frustrations of residents who feel that they're too often positioned in places with revenue in mind rather than safety.

I also want to see a more proactive approach from North Yorkshire Council to putting traffic regulation orders (TROs) in place to reduce speed limits where they’re needed. Take the A19 at Riccall, where drivers are forced to take enormous risks day in, day out when crossing a lane of 60mph traffic. Here, the simple passing of a TRO could see the limit reduced to 40mph or 50mph, significantly reducing the risks of collision.

There are other areas where I think things could be done better too. Research shows that speed indicator devices (SIDs), which display the speed of a passing car along with its registration, are a much more effective way of tackling speeding than the more general 'slow down' vehicle activated signs (VIS) which we see in North Yorkshire. Yet in our county the use of SIDs isn’t allowed, because the Council's approach is still governed by an outdated protocol from 2019. Before I looked into this, I had assumed that the SIDs weren't used because they were more expensive, so you can imagine my amazement when I found out that they can even sometimes even be cheaper! Updating outdated policies like these are easy wins for the Council and I think that a more proactive approach would see improvements delivered quickly.

Next month, the Selby and Ainsty Area Constituency Committee will hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss road safety in our area. I’ve been encouraged by the early efforts made by North Yorkshire’s new Highways Executive Member Malcolm Taylor, and I want to continue to work with him and the Deputy Mayor Jo Coles to reduce the risks of driving in and around Selby. I'll be speaking at the meeting to set out the changes I want to see, and I truly hope that the Council will take them onboard.

Last week, Riccall residents came out to pay their respects to former Councillor John Duggan. They did so not only because he was a much-loved family man and respected local resident, but also because people were confident that as their local councillor he had their best interests at heart. His death, along with all of the others on North Yorkshire's roads in recent years, should remind us all to drive safely, and to keep pushing for improvements to our road network – we owe it to the memories of everyone who has lost their lives on our roads to see these changes delivered.