IAM survey highlights party differences among councillors on road-related priorities

Ahead of this Thursday's local elections, road safety charity IAM has released the results of a survey it carried out among more than 1,000 councillors throughout the UK to find out what their priorities are when it comes to road safety. Road surfaces and potholes, and improving road safety, are seen as key priorities for representatives of the three main GB-wide parties, but other issues do highlight significant differences between the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats in specific areas.

Rather than bombard you with text, we thought it simpler to show the different responses graphically in a chart.

Conservative councillors come out firmly as prioritising issues that will be most of concern to the motoring lobby - reducing congestion, more car parks, and investing in road building and infrastructure projects.

Those are much less of a priority for their Labour and Liberal Democrat counterparts - both strongly favour more use of public transport, and the latter in particular place an emphasis on cycling and walking, with two thirds of them saying it is an area they look to prioritise.

The green bar in the chart below is really there for information only - it represents other parties, including independents, and encompasses a broad range of views, possibly including the Green Party, UKIP, the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru, among others, although it's impossible to say for sure.

IAM's full survey includes a number of questions relating specifically to cycling, and we'll be analysing the responses to those in a separate article.

IAM local councillor survey, February 2013

% responses

IAM emailed all councillors in England Scotland and Wales to find out their views on a range of issues; some 1,117 reponses were received, of which 415 were from Conservative councillors, 303 from Labour, 197 from Liberal Democrats and 202 form representatives of other parties/independents.