BIKER Steve Harding fears motorcyclists could be in greater danger in Oxfordshire after a council road safety expert was made redundant.

For the past two years, the H Riders group, which meets at the H Café on the A4074 near Dorchester, has hosted several safety awareness days.

Hundreds of motorcyclists have been able to pick up safety tips from Oxfordshire County Council staff and sign up for police advanced rider courses.

Mr Harding, 59, from Berinsfield, near Wallingford, said: “Bikers meet regularly at the H Café and hundreds of bikers have attended the safety days.

“The last time we ran one of the days 40 bikers signed up to go out on assessments.

“It’s disappointing that the county council van won’t come be able to come along, because of cutbacks.”

He said the group would continue to stage safety events but added: “We will still be able to hand out advice but it won’t be so easy to sign people up for assessments.”

Mr Harding added: “If the number of deaths is increasing, it makes it all the more important to get advice to as many bikers as possible.”

Eight bikers died on Oxfordshire’s roads last year, compared with nine so far this year.

County council spokesman Owen Morton said: “A cut in the road safety grant from the Government has led to the removal of the post within the safer roads team that was assigned to deal with such events.

“We will continue to support such events in future as resources permit.”

He added: “Councils up and down the UK have had their road safety grant cut and these cuts are likely to be continued and increased in future years.”

Reductions in road safety funding led to all 72 fixed speed cameras in Oxfordshire being switched off in August to save £600,000 a year.

Over the past decade, 95 motorcyclists have died on Oxfordshire’s roads.

National figures show that motorcyclists account for just one per cent of traffic in the UK, but 19 per cent of those who die on the roads are bikers.

affrench@oxfordmail.co.uk