Surrey Highways publicly back Safer Highways led 'Stamp it Out' programme

Every day more than 4000 highway contractors risk their safety to work on UK roads. More people are killed working on the roads than in almost any other area of industry.

Surrey Highways are passionate about the safety of all road users and our workforce. Over the years there have been many incidents where crews working on the roads have been put in dangerous positions by angry motorists, facing both verbal and physical abuse.

Recently Surrey has seen an increase in people ignoring traffic management and road closures and putting themselves, their passengers and our workers at risk of injury or even worse. Teams working on the roads have also found themselves subject to abuse from members of the public, workers have been verbally abused and threatened by drivers or passengers who have a grievance about where the work is being carried out or the short-term inconvenience it causes for traffic.

The Stamp it Out programme is led by Safer Highways in partnership with the UK government which has an overarching goal to make it socially unacceptable to abuse those who work on the public highway.

The campaign will culminate in a national awareness programme entitled ‘Respect our Roadworkers Week’ Which will take place later in 2021 and involve a number of public and industry facing initiatives ranging from toolbox talks to radio campaigns.

It will also act as the launchpad for the Stamp it Out app designed to give everyone an equal platform to be able to report abuse and incursions on the public highway.

Over the coming year, Surrey's teams will be working hard to resurface 60 miles of pavements, improve 80 miles of major roads, maintain bridges and structures, convert streetlights to LED and to resurface 225 miles of road and as such will proactively be taking steps to minimise the risk to those we put to work by collaborating with Stamp it Out.

The campaign aims to eliminate all kinds of abuse within the Surrey road network and by working together, we hope to toughen the legislation around abuse of road workers, support our colleague's and raise awareness of the vital role we play in keeping the county’s infrastructure going