Road safety the big winner in $1 million grants program

06 Apr 2016

The TAC is calling on community groups to put on their road safety thinking caps and make submissions to its Community Road Safety Grants program, with this round's deadline fast approaching.

TAC road safety manager Samantha Cockfield said groups who make a successful submission by next Friday (April 15) will each receive a share of a $1 million program to make the state's roads safer.

"Every Victorian has a role to play in our Towards Zero approach to making the state's roads as safe as they can be and it's heartening to see community groups playing their part and putting up innovative ideas to make their communities safer," Ms Cockfield said.

"The Community Road Safety Grants program recognises that local communities are often in a very good position to identify local safety issues and come up with new ideas to overcome them.

"Successful recipients of the most recent round of grants should be congratulated for their innovative approaches to safety and we hope to see lots of other new ideas submitted for the next round of funding."

The groups, ranging from football clubs to councils and trauma groups, have been awarded grants of up to $25,000 under the Transport Accident Commission's Community Road Safety Grants program.

The program is open to metropolitan and regional bodies, local councils, schools, community and not-for profit groups who identify a road safety issue and solution.

The grants program has been running since 2008. Grant recipients have targeted issues including drink driving, pedestrians, motorcyclists, cyclists, speed and driver education.

Previous winners of community road safety grants have included:

• $13,000-$25,000 to review and update the local council's road safety strategy (City of Ballarat, Surf Coast Shire, Ararat Rural City Council and others)

• $15,000 for four portable variable messaging signs for use around schools and local streets where speeding is an issue (Mornington Peninsula Shire Council)
• $15,000 for the printing of banners to promote the use of protective motorcycle gear in the Sunraysia region (Community RoadSafe Mildura Inc.).

Visit the Community Road Safety Grants pages to make an application for the next round.