Staffordshire backs campaign to stamp out abuse of highways workers

Highways workers in Staffordshire have faced a steep rise of abuse

Highways bosses at Staffordshire County Council are supporting a national campaign to stop abuse of roadworkers.

The Stamp it Out campaign, which originated in the transportation sector, hopes to raise awareness of the issue amongst the public and help remove abuse that roadworkers receive every day. Research by the group found that 50% of those in public-facing roles face daily abuse, while 80% do not report it, thinking nothing will be done about it.

In Staffordshire, 216 incidents have been recorded over the last 12 months. These included incidents where drivers ignored signs, drove through road closures, carried out dangerous manoeuvres and mounted pavements to squeeze past roadworks.

Of the 216 incidents, 34 were of abuse towards roadworkers, including threats of violence or attack.

In one incident earlier in the year in Tamworth, aggressive and threatening behaviour by a member of the public halted work on a major highways scheme for several days.

To tackle the increasing risk of abuse and reckless behaviour, highway workers have begun to wear bodycams and vehicles are fitted with dashcams to record any incidents. The recordings are then sent to the police for further investigation.

Peter Mason, Cabinet Member for Strategic Highways at Staffordshire County Council, said:

“Our highways teams have an important job to do in fixing our roads and keeping them well maintained in all weather conditions. Unfortunately, we have had incidents of abuse which have threatened their safety and caused unnecessary delays to schemes.

“There is always a lot of public focus leading to lots of political rhetoric around roadworks, the disruption they cause and the effects this has on communities and businesses.“It is a challenging issue to get the balance right between works and road availability.

We understand people will want to raise genuine concerns, but we’d ask they do so in a positive manner – otherwise they will add fuel to a highly charged environment which only increases the likelihood of such abuse happening.“No-one deserves to be abused at work. The safety of our road crews always comes first and any threatening behaviour shown towards them will not be tolerated.”

People can watch an example of this dangerous behaviour here, which was captured by our highways team.