Ford sees best profit in 13 years on green car sales

Ford has unveiled its strongest first quarter profits for 13 years, helped by increasing demand for more fuel-efficient cars.

Profits rose to $2.55bn (£1.54bn; 1.75bn euros) in the first three months of 2011, compared with $2.09bn at the same period the year before.

"Our team delivered a great quarter, with solid growth in all regions," said Ford president Alan Mulally. Ford said the 2011 outlook was good, despite higher commodity costs. Revenue for the first quarter was $33.1bn, up from $28.1bn a year earlier.

The firm said it had seen a strong performance in its home North American market, as well as "solid improvement" in Europe. US sales were up 16%, while market share in the Asia Pacific and Africa regions also increased, the carmaker said.

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source: BBC

Botched roadworks cost taxpayers £70m, says LGA

Botched roadworks are costing taxpayers in England and Wales £70m a year, the Local Government Association says.

It says councils are being left with the bill after contractors for utility companies fail to properly repair road surfaces they have dug up.

Workers dug two million holes last year and about 360,000 jobs were not properly completed, often leaving roads in a worse state, the LGA says. The utility industry said controls over repairs were being tightened.

This was in response to an LGA suggestion that utility companies should pay a bond before starting any work, which could then be used to cover the cost of any subsequent repairs or delays. The utility industry said any extra regulations would increase the cost of carrying out the work.

The LGA, which represents 419 local authorities in England and Wales, also wants councils to be given further powers to ensure roadworks are timed to cause minimum disruption to motorists.

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source: BBC

Saving Lives, Saving Money

Six thousand lives could be saved on Britain's roads over the next ten years if just a fraction of the money currently spent on road maintenance was provided for infrastructure improvements.

Britain loses up to £30 billion (2.3% GDP) annually in the cost of road crashes, most of which falls on busy, targetable motorways and main roads according toSaving Lives, Saving Money: the costs and benefits of achieving safe roads, a report for the RAC Foundation by the Road Safety Foundation.

The report shows how, within existing budgets, 1-star and 2-star roads can be eliminated in the next decade, with benefits worth £25-£35 billion. Achieving the savings will require that road authority leaders are offered guidance to focus on the full costs and benefits of saving the most lives for the money available.

According to Saving Lives, Saving Money, the total cost of crashes is well estimated by the Department for Transport but the way costs fall on families, business, carers, NHS, emergency services and the insurance industry is poorly understood.

The report also calls for:

• The government's upcoming Strategic Framework for Road Safety to make the Highways Agency - Britain's single largest crash cost centre - the model of best practice from which UK authorities can learn;
• New good practice guidance for authority leaders and professionals on generating and evaluating safety schemes so 1- and 2-star roads are eliminated and dual carriageways and motorways are brought up to high safety standards
• Parliament and the Treasury to examine the value for money that can be provided by programmes to reduce death and injury and investigate how institutional barriers to rational investment and priority setting can be overcome;
• Technical improvements to the evaluation of crash costs and recording of serious crashes by police and hospitals, with more focus on long-term care and the true financial costs of road crashes to healthcare and emergency services;
• The insurance industry to study the initiatives in other countries where the cost of damage and injury claims has been driven down successfully through improved safety.

For the full report and to visit the Road Safety Foundation website click here...

source: The Road Safety Foundation