The whole concept of The Safety Forum was born out the desire to provide truly Independent Road Safety Auditing of private and public sector development-related proposals and other civic assessments.

Road Safety Audits are required to be undertaken by qualified, experienced and independent experts; Impartiality is paramount if road safety is to be uncompromised.

The Safety Forum’s name was derived from its unique approach to its audit work; its principal resource is a ‘forum’ of experts drawn from academia, police, local authorities and private consultancies, for example. These experts are generally not full time employees but freelance professionals who offer a diversity of specialist advice and experience drawn from practice and institutions throughout the UK .

Above all, unlike any other professional Safety Audit consultancy and by way of its unique approach, The Safety Forum’s approach ensures that its advice is completely divorced from all other planning and design considerations associated with a project.

The Safety Forum offers a fast and efficient audit service, with value, which provides a thorough and accurate assessment of infrastructure safety, whether for new build or current infrastructure.

The Safety Forum’s work includes for example, assessment of road safety credentials of a proposed road modification, under Stages 1, 2, 3 and 4 from the national standards HD 19/03.

Again, it is believed that The Safety Forum is unique in offering Data Collection, such as speed surveys within its ‘stable’ of expertise. As with totally impartial and accurate RSA and AIP work, the gathering of infrastructure related data is key to achieving the optimum safety solution.

Professionals acknowledge that as background to design solutions and associated traffic management, by way of Travel Plans, for example, safety and capacity are closely linked, e.g. a congested junction may cause ‘rat running’, often through residential areas, where there maybe school children, through-traffic, and by its nature, often speeds!

Again uniquely, The Safety Forum provides data collection services, side-by-side with its RSA and AIP work, thereby delivering a complete package of impartial expertise and adding value.

Local Authorities have responded well to the ‘The Safety Forum way’ as it assists the Planning Application process at Officer and Member level by conceptually and actually demonstrating clear impartiality. This tends to streamline processes, thus saving time, and also enables efficient, often inspired design and management solutions.

The Safety Forum’s clients come from the private and public sector and are varied. Its work covers a wide range of project sizes and types.

By inclusion of safety auditing within the planning process, a project’s progress through planning is generally facilitated. This is because all parties can be assured that road safety has not been compromised within an otherwise balanced planning assessment. This is especially so if The Safety Forum has undertaken the Safety Auditing.