A council’s recent announcement that it intends to reduce the speed limit in urban, residential areas from 30mph to 20mph – a move the local authority says will be “beneficial” for people cycling, walking, and wheeling – has been greeted with righteous indignation by opposition politicians, who have described the plans as “nuts”, “extremely worrying”, and guaranteed to “upset” constituents.
Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole Council’s deputy leader told a meeting this week that it was the local authority’s “intention” to introduce a “default” 20mph limit in built-up areas throughout the conurbation, similar to the widespread implementation of lowered speed limits in Wales last autumn.
The announcement comes three months after the council’s environment portfolio holder Andy Hadley pledged that a full consultation would take place before a decision was made on the matter.
This week, the Liberal Democrat-controlled administration’s deputy leader also indicated that meetings will be held with residents and campaigners, such as the 20 is Plenty road safety group, over the coming days to gauge the level of local support for reduced speed limits, the Daily Echo reports.
“Will BCP Council implement a 20mph default speed limit? Yes, that is our intention,” Millie Earl told the council meeting, adding that the local authority is “keen to hear the views of the whole community”.
““There will be some roads that are exempt on the basis of need and capacity. It is also likely that the roll-out will take some time working alongside communities and finding the needs for funding such a widespread change.”
She continued: “20mph, by default, in a built-up urban area would be beneficial to people walking, wheeling, and cycling and as highlighted would also benefit public health and air quality.
“I represent the Newtown and Heatherlands ward and we have seen the benefits of large-scale 20mph speed limits which were introduced in 2010 and extended in subsequent years to cover almost all the ward.”
The announcement was praised by Poole resident and Cycling Rebellion founder Adam Osman, who said the reduced speed limits would “really encourage more cycle journeys”, as well as improving health and reducing serious injuries and deaths on the roads.
“We need to halve the number of miles driven in order to meet climate change goals even if we switch all cars to electric,” he said.
However, the prospect of 20mph speed limits in residential areas was not met with the same enthusiasm across the political aisle, with local Conservative politicians rushing to condemn the “out of the blue” and “extremely worrying” announcement.
“Not only was this announcement before any consultation, but according to Cllr Earl was because ‘that is what the Three Towns Alliance councillors campaigned on during the local elections’,” Conservative councillor Phil Broadhead, whose tweet criticising the proposals– posted during this week’s council meeting – was met with several locals welcoming “safer streets”, told the Echo.
“Many of us warned that voting for these parties would see a return to anti-car measures, and this announcement, coupled with others such as the closure of Poole Park to through traffic, again without pre-consultation, shows that we were right.”
The council’s closure of the narrow Keyhole Bridge in Poole Park, referred to by Broadhead, came after Cycling UK launched a judicial review against the then-Conservative administration’s decision to reopen the road, which had been temporarily closed to drivers in 2020 as part of a bid to encourage active travel and provide pedestrians and cyclists with a safe route on a narrow, dangerous road hitherto used as a rat-run by motorists.
However, over the course of the following two years, the Conservative-controlled council ignored two public consultations, showing the vast majority of residents supported the road’s permanent closure, by choosing to reopen the underpass to motor traffic, prompting Cycling UK’s appeal.
Meanwhile, arguing against the widespread lowering of speed limits in his constituency, Poole’s Conservative MP Sir Robert Syms also added: “I would support 20mph near schools but a general policy I think is nuts. It is unpopular in London and in Wales and it will upset my constituents if implemented.”
While Sir Robert dismissed the widespread implementation of 20mph speed limits across Wales in September as unpopular, the initial analysis of the measure’s impact suggested a “dramatic” change in traffic speeds, with the results hailed as “astonishing and far greater than would have been predicted”.
An initial report by transport and public health data analysts Agilysis in the wake of the new speed limit’s introduction showed an average reduction in vehicle speed on new 20mph routes of 2.9mph.
Agilysis’ Richard Owen said the “marked” drop demonstrated that Welsh drivers had “on the whole” accepted lower speed limits and “have changed their behaviour accordingly”.
And Rod King MBE, a campaign director at 20’s Plenty for Us added that he was confident that the much-discussed move will make routes “far more pleasant for walkers and cyclists”.