"People have a right to feel safe - and to be safe."

"People have a right to feel safe - and to be safe."

These words, spoken by Andy MacNae MP (pictured) at Monday’s 'Every Day Without A Road Death' (Project EDWARD) event in Westminster, have stayed with me.

It is such a simple principle - a basic right.

Yet it is not the reality for many people using our roads today. Andy noted that most concerns raised by his constituents relate to road safety. His constituency is in Lancashire, but the same concerns are echoed across the country. Communities are anxious, frustrated and tired of feeling unheard.

Many people no longer feel safe on the roads where they live, walk, cycle, ride or drive.

Recently, in my own Nottinghamshire community, there have been eight crashes in quick succession, including one that killed a much-loved horse and others that left several people injured, alongside numerous near misses. Yet the expectation remains to “carry on”.

If residents faced an immediate risk to life in any other context, action would be taken at once. But when the danger comes from the road - through dangerous driving, speeding, heavy traffic or deteriorating conditions - we are too often expected to accept it. We should not have to.

People don’t expect a magic wand. What they want is to be heard, to feel supported and to know that their concerns about road danger are being taken seriously. Without that, fear and frustration grow - and communities are left feeling powerless.

Things are shifting nationally - but people need to feel it locally At the EDWARD event, Chief Constable Jo Shiner (above), from the National Police Chiefs' Council, said that in her 30-plus years in policing, she has never seen such collaboration and determination among partners on road safety. I agree. In my 21 years in road safety communications, neither have I.

She spoke powerfully about the emotional toll road crashes take - on families and communities whose lives change in an instant, and on the officers who respond to these scenes day after day.

National momentum matters. But it must now translate into action that people can see and feel where they live. That is why the publication of the national road safety strategy next week is so important.

It is a critical opportunity to turn shared intent into consistent action. The UK has been without a national road safety strategy for years and communities are living with the consequences.

As the strategy is published, I hope it reflects what people across the country have been saying for decades:

• We have a right to feel safe.

• We have a right to be safe.

• And we have a right to expect leadership that treats road danger as seriously as any other threat to life.

Our roads should not be places of fear.