Almost two-thirds of local authority-controlled roads scored poorly in a new star rating system for road safety, based on engineering rather than casualty data.

Developed by the European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP), the new system also reveals only 11% of UK A-roads and just half the length of motorways made the top, four-star grade. Almost two-thirds of local authority A-roads scored less than three stars, compared with 42% generally.

The star rating system is based on a road protection score (RPS), which focuses on three areas – the design of the side of the road, the design of the median, and the design of junctions. The IAM Motoring Trust, which co-funded the star ratings with the Highways Agency, hopes highways engineers will be provided with the funds to ensure all their roads are upgraded to at least a three-star rating, especially given the RPS system is in the public domain.

The accompanying EuroRAP report found that a change of one star could produce a 30% potential reduction in fatal and serious accidents.

But Colin McKenna, head of highways at West Sussex County Council, told Surveyor: ‘We don’t have the money to upgrade all our roads to a four-star level, which would cost about £50M.

‘But, hopefully, EuroRAP will have an impact on funding, especially on funding allocation for the next Comprehensive Spending Review and the post-2010 safety targets.’

He said the RPS surveys identified almost exactly the same weak spots in West Sussex as the council’s accident data – a conclusion echoed by David Lynam, EuropRAP’s research co-ordinator and chief scientist at TRL, who said the overall correlation between accident rates and RPS was ‘quite good’.

McKenna said the council planned to blend its own indicators, which measured casualties rates per kilometre, with RPS, to achieve a more predictive rather than reactive approach to accident prevention. West Sussex had carried out a number of improvements to boost road-protection scores over the past few years, such as clearing vegetation and installing central reserve safety barriers, he added.

Proposals are included for further work to improve the rating system, extend the survey to all HA roads, and provide guidance on its use by local highways engineers. The new system is based on 7,000km of the UK’s motorways and A-roads, including one-third of the HA network.

Read more on Eurorap here.