More than a million fewer miles driven by Hertfordshire County Council staff

The number of miles driven by employees of Hertfordshire County Council dropped by more than a million in the first three months of the Covid-19 ‘lockdown’, new data shows.

In the first three months of 2020 county council employees claimed for more than 1.7million ‘business miles’.

But data shows that between April and June that plummeted to 417,493.

That’s a decrease of 1,298,781 miles – or 75 per cent – compared to the previous three months.

And it’s reported to be 72 per cent lower compared to the same time period last year.

The significant reduction – said to be due to the impact of Covid-19 – is due to be reported to the county council’s resources and performance cabinet panel on Thursday, October 1.

The data focuses only on the number of business miles claimed. And, as such, does not include the thousands of journeys that would not have been made by staff to get to and from their work during lockdown.

Meanwhile, the same ‘performance monitor’ report to the cabinet panel also indicates that the number of serious traffic collisions on the county’s roads more than halved between April and June.

During the three-month period – the first three full months of lockdown – there were 61 collisions that were attended by Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service.

And that compares to 129 collisions that required attendance by the service in the previous three months (Jan – March 2020).

“The sharp drop in road traffic casualty numbers in Q1 is attributed to the marked reduction in road travel due to Covid-19 restrictions during this period,” says the report to the cabinet panel.