Address from the Chair - Eric Hill

It doesn’t feel like almost a year since I became the Chair of SoRSA, a time that has included events in Ireland, Scotland and England, a number of webinars and our contribution to CIHT Council and strategy boards.

Further events are planned including a webinar on the 14th May and a social event in Cardiff on the 23rd May.

Our plans for the annual conference on the 17th and 18th June are very advanced with bookings being taken and a conference programme that I hope you’ll find interesting, engaging, and relevant to your work in road safety. The conference also heralds the arrival of our Annual General Meeting, which this year will also be accessible online to those who cannot attend in person.

This year’s AGM sees a number of committee positions to be filled as follows:

• Treasurer (3-year post)
• Ordinary Committee Members (1 year post)
• 3 x Ordinary Committee Members (3-year post)
• Ordinary Committee Member – Scotland (3-year post)
• 3 x Co opted Ordinary Committee Members (1 year post)

The notice of the meeting will be issued to the membership in May and these posts are open to any members of SoRSA. I hope to catch up with many of you in person at the June conference and future events.

Annual Conference 2024 - 17th / 18th June

Our annual conference this year is looking to be an exciting and interesting one with a full line up of speakers presenting on a number of themes including Vulnerable Road Users and the Safe Systems Approach. The first day will include two workshops, the first from Luke Heming of Metropolitan Police on safety in Urban Realm schemes followed by an informative workshop from Dr Suzy Charman on the Safe Systems Approach. Following Day 1, will be the SoRSA AGM followed by our dinner where delegates will have the chance to network with colleagues from across the industry.

Day two  will have presentations in the morning on Vulnerable Road Users, including Helen Mauchline from the British Horse Society and Alex Stedmon from Transport  Scotland on Prime Road markings for motorcyclists. The second half of the morning will cover Safe Systems and will include Route Scoring from Panos Chiotis and more on Safe Systems from Dr Claire Williams. The final three presentations in the afternoon will include the topics of Kerbside Strategies (Natasha Hartke), How the Police can support Active Travel (Kevin Smith)  and addressing suicide prevention as part of RSA (Nicola Tweedie). To finish off the day we will have a question time session with industry professionals, Kate Carpenter, Den Symons, Miguel-Angel Serrano Santos & Dr Suzy Charman. There will be the opportunity to submit questions prior to the session.

HD19//94 – 30 Years on

April marks 30 years since HD19/94 first appeared. The fundamentals of this document are still imbedded into the documentation we use today.  Including the independence of the audit team, the importance of the brief, the report structure and audit team statement. In November 2003, HD19 had a significant update, outlining requirements for audit team training, skills and experience and also defining what should be included in the audit report. This paved the way for a group of like minded professionals to establish SoRSA in 2007, as a forum to exchange best practice and, importantly, to provide advice and ultimately routes to professional recognition for safety auditing practitioners.

Moving forward, our goal remains the same, we have working groups looking at CPD, the potential for a local highway authority guidance note, and how best to extend the role of SoRSA. We would like to hear from the membership on how the SoRSA committee can best help our membership. Drop us a line on sorsa@ciht.org.uk or speak to any of our committee members directly.

Upcoming Events

14th May 2024 – Road Safety Insights: A Journey Through the STATS19 Update

23rd May 2024 – SoRSA Wales Road Safety Audit Social Club 2024

17th June 2024 – SoRSA Annual Conference 2024

September 2024 – Scottish Workshop – TBC

Recent further reading for CPD Self Reading

March 2024 – Bus user priority (LTN 1/24

March 2024 – Setting local speed limits

March 2024 – Implementing low traffic neighbourhoods

Continuing Professional Development

CPD doesn’t just have to be around attending events and webinar, there are further opportunities for development through volunteering or further reading. GG119 sets out a minimum requirement of 2 days CPD in the last 12 months. Also, as a CIHT member you are expected to plan, record, and reflect on CPD throughout each year, with members required to undertake a minimum of 25 hours of CPD per year.  

Continuing Professional Development | CIHT

CIHT SoRSA Road Safety Audit Guidelines 2021 – SoRSA Manuals Home | CIHT

Further Information

The latest National Highways Road Safety Audit Quarterly Review is available. This newsletter provides road safety auditors, designers, and other road safety professionals with an update on current road safety audit and other general road safety related issues, in addition to the review of Road Safety Audit (RSA) reports.

You can contact SoRSA with any questions at sorsa@ciht.org.uk and for any other queries please contact regions@ciht.org.uk