134 people were killed or seriously injured on West Northants roads in 2025. The council's draft road safety plan to 2045 is open for comment until 6 December.

West Northamptonshire Council wants views on a new plan to cut deaths and serious injuries on its roads. The consultation on its draft Road Safety Strategy opened on Monday and closes at 11.59pm on Sunday 6 December.

The council says 134 people were killed or seriously injured on its local roads in 2025. Its own draft admits progress has stalled. After years of decline, collisions and casualties “have returned to pre-pandemic levels”, and serious casualties rise and fall from year to year “without a sustained downward trend”.

What the council’s figures show

The draft strategy uses the official collision records (the STATS19 dataset) for 2021 to 2025. Its key findings:

  • 134 people killed or seriously injured on the council’s local roads in 2025
  • 769 collisions across West Northamptonshire in 2025, 149 of them injury collisions on the motorways and trunk roads run by National Highways
  • 57% of people killed in the last five years were vulnerable road users: people walking, cycling, riding e-scooters or riding motorbikes
  • nearly one in four deaths in the last five years involved motorcyclists
  • children accounted for more than a quarter of pedestrian casualties
  • speed was recorded as a factor in nearly 43% of collisions
  • “ineffective observation”, failing to look properly, was the most common single factor, in 33% of collisions

The strategy also notes where the danger sits. Towns see the most collisions, but on slower roads. Rural roads see “a disproportionate number of fatal and serious collisions”.

People notice. Of the town and parish councils that answered the council’s early questions, 60% rated their local roads “unsafe” or “very unsafe”.

Facts panel: 134 people killed or seriously injured on West Northamptonshire's local roads in 2025; 57% of people killed in the last five years were vulnerable road users; speed a factor in 43% of collisions; 60% of responding town and parish councils rated their roads unsafe or very unsafe; consultation closes 6 December.
Key figures from the council's draft strategy. Graphic by The Northampton Wire
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What the plan would do

The draft follows the “Safe System” approach used nationally. It accepts that people will make mistakes, and aims to design roads so that mistakes do not kill. The council’s stated vision is “safer roads for all”, where “no loss of life or serious injury is acceptable”.

It sets no local casualty target of its own. Instead it says it is working towards the Government’s national targets for 2035, measured against 2022 to 2024:

  • a 65% cut in the number of people killed or seriously injured
  • a 70% cut in the number of children (16 and under) killed or seriously injured

The measures in the draft include:

  • 20mph limits: a review of speed limits across the local network to find residential and busy pedestrian areas that would benefit from 20mph
  • School Streets: a pilot at three schools, closing roads outside the gates to traffic at drop-off and pick-up, with any wider roll-out dependent on funding and results
  • pavement parking: areas to restrict it once the Department for Transport issues guidance, which the council expects in late 2026
  • near-miss cameras: a trial using the cameras that already count people walking and cycling to spot near misses
  • targeted speed enforcement: using collision data to pick sites, with partners
  • speed limit requests: a “clear, transparent process, with published results” for requests from town and parish councils
  • Red Routes: a clearer annual summary of the most dangerous stretches of road

It is frank about cameras. “Widespread camera deployment is not viable,” the draft says, “and enforcement alone is unlikely to deliver lasting behaviour change.”

The council has £48.345 million of Government capital funding for transport between 2026/27 and 2029/30, according to the draft. That pot also covers road maintenance and public transport, so road safety has to compete for it.

What the council says

Cllr Richard Butler, the cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “Too many people are still being killed or seriously injured on our roads. We want to do everything we can to prevent that from happening.”

What it means for you

  • Have your say by 11.59pm on Sunday 6 December. Read the draft and answer the online survey. There is a three-page summary if you do not want the full 29 pages.
  • Ask questions live. The council is holding an online session on Microsoft Teams on Monday 23 November, 10am to 11.30am. Email LocalTransportPlan@westnorthants.gov.uk to register, or call 0300 126 7000.
  • Want a 20mph limit or a crossing in your street? Under the draft, requests for new crossings and speed limit reviews go through your town or parish council. It is worth telling them now, so they can put it in their own response.
  • What happens next: the council will use the responses to write a final strategy. Its news release says it goes to Cabinet in spring 2027; the consultation page says early 2027.

For roads closed this week, see our Northampton roadworks page.

Sources