FATALITIES on Essex Roads have risen alarmingly, latest figures have revealed ahead of the closure of two road police unit.

Figures compiled by the Police and Crime Commissioner's office show a “statistically significant” increase in deaths and serious injury in the first two months of 2016, with 22 fatalities compared to an 11.2 five-year average, and 179 serious injuries compared to a 152 five-year average.

But on the back of reductions in road policing officers from 140 to 80 since 2010, the force is now moving to close two of its four roads policing bases, in Laindon and Chelmsford.

Angela Smith, Baroness Basildon, is worried the cuts may be putting motorists in danger. She said: “The figures are pretty alarming.

“I’ve been asking questions in the House of Lords to investigate whether there is a correlation between the significant reduction in the numbers of dedicated road traffic officers and the number of people killed or seriously injured.

“If you compare how we are doing to Kent, which has a similar population size, we are not doing terribly well. I would hope we would be seeing quite dramatic decreases but it doesn’t seem to be happening.”

Essex Police had previously claimed the reduction in road traffic officers was offset by support from 111 officers and staff in other specialist roads policing roles, and the figures obtained by Baroness Basildon did show a decrease in the number of fatalities and serious injuries on Essex roads from 52 deaths in 2010 to 38 in 2014 and 754 serious injuries to 719.

However, the latest PCC figures show in the 12 months to March this year, 57 people were killed on Essex roads – almost 36 per cent more than the previous year’s 42.

Southend highways councillor Martin Terry, who is also standing as an independent in the PCC elections next month, said the closure of Langdon Road Policing Unit would be "suicidal" and send motorists the wrong message.

He said: “Mobile policing has already been absolutely decimated in Essex and, while it’s very hard to directly link the two, there’s no doubt that driving standards will fall and people will take risks if they feel it’s very unlikely they will be caught, in particular drink driving."