Spending money, maybe

A pleasantly empty diary this morning allowed me to catch up on some of the things which haven't been done recently. Cancelled meetings do give these opportunities, though they also bring problems of course.
This afternoon I had the pre-meeting briefing session with transport engineers to discuss the issues for next week's Area Transport Strategy meeting. I'd hoped that we'd have some local evidence to put with the national evidence we had last time about the effectiveness of Speed Indicator Devices (SIDs) but such evidence as there is doesn't really help - some slight reduction in speed sometimes in some places but not enough evidence to really be sure whether mobile or fixed are better or indeed whether either has any long term effect. There seems to be some evidence from such areas as Ingleby Barwick that a little like fixed speed cameras or some speed bumps, they cause people to brake as they reach them but not to alter their normal speed or driving style. However, the evidence is mostly anecdotal.
Other projects which we'd decided to look into spending money on are coming out either far too expensive or to be covered by other budgets in due course or the consultation hasn't been completed. At present Yarm, Eaglescliffe and the surrounding villages are very safe according to the statistics with no accident blackspots and no residents coming along to ward or town councillors with serious concerns to take to the Transport Strategy Stakeholder meeting.
Because of the way the funding is arranged we can't carry it over into next financial year so what isn't allocated at next week's meeting will go back into the central pot to help out with general works. It's going to be an interesting discussion - what to spend money on when there are no pressing requests from residents and no statistics suggesting that some safety work should be done.
On the way home I did manage to spend money - my own this time - on some much needed grocery shopping!