20mph petition ‘demolished’ by campaign group that supports the change

Martin Shipton

The group that campaigned for a default 20mph speed limit in Wales has produced a devastating critique of the petition against the limit that has attracted more than 467,000 signatures.

20’s Plenty for us has gone through the petition line by line, pointing out serious factual errors and statements based on disputable opinion.

Rod King, the founder and campaign director of 20’s Plenty, said: “On the face of it this seems a lot, but when put into the national perspective of implementing 20mph across the whole of Wales then such a level of response is predictable. Any petition bringing together those who oppose 20mph limits for residential roads, those who oppose Welsh Labour or simply are critical of particular roads was bound to attract a large number of signatures.

“An analysis of the petition statement shows that it is so flawed in presenting its case that whilst accepting it has attracted a large number of signatures, it cannot be used as any credible basis for any variation in government policy.

“20’s Plenty for us believe that the Welsh Government and local authorities should be congratulated for delivering this life-enhancing and life-preserving 20mph initiative for the people of Wales which does have wide public support.”

In a Q&A section on its website, the group dissects the petition in detail.

Disastrous

Petition: We want the Welsh Government to rescind and remove the disastrous 20mph law.

Response: “Disastrous” is an opinion. Different people see 20mph in different ways. The change will benefit 500,000 Welsh children, 300,000 Welsh households with no access to a car and 600,000 Welsh people with concessionary travel passes Every indication from both the trials and the actual results after implementation are that speeds have reduced by a significant amount and match the intention of Senedd.

Petition: The new 20mph law is coming into force on the 17th September and it will mark the end of having socialism in power in Wales.

Response: While the change in the national default speed limit for restricted roads from 30mph to 20mph came in on 17th September, the view that this will “end socialism” is speculation and opinion. Although that may be the petitioner’s aspiration, 20mph limits have been implemented by councils of all political colours. There is no evidence of “17th September marking the end of having socialism in power in Wales.” Hence this is a “false statement”

Petition: Welsh Government claim to have supporting evidence stating that reducing to 20mph EVERWHERE saves lives! Yet we get flyers merely claiming that it will, and opinions from doctors that see RTCs coming into A&E. This is NOT evidence. The only true evidence is from Belfast and it states it makes NO DIFFERENCE to RTCs!

Response: There is no plan to implement 20mph “everywhere”. In covering “restricted roads” in built-up areas it automatically excludes unrestricted 40mph roads, and 30mph roads without lighting. Local Highway Authorities are fully empowered to set local exceptions and, in anticipating the change, have excluded many roads so that they remain at 30mph. There is credible and strong evidence from many authorities in the UK that 20mph limits reduce casualties and protect loss of life.

This includes Edinburgh, Bristol, London, Warrington, Calderdale, Cheshire West and Chester. There is already strong evidence from elsewhere that 20mph and 30km/h limits reduce casualties. The small city-centre 20mph limit in Belfast covered just 76 roads, including 26 that were pedestrianised with motor vehicles excluded. Since those roads had mean speeds before implementation of less than 20mph and few casualties, it is inevitable that speeds and casualties would not reduce further.

Belfast’s implementation is a poor example and is completely different to the Welsh implementation of 20mph as a national “default”. To say that it is “The only true evidence” is not credible. The statement that “The only true evidence is from Belfast” is a “false statement”.

Petition: At least one of the trial villages in Monmouthshire actually reverted their trial because it was causing absolute carnage on the roads! Mark Drakeford has come out claiming it is a success in St Brides Major but every time I go though there NO ONE is driving at 20mph.

Response: In one of Monmouthshire’s pilot villages a decision was made to retrospectively make 3 sections of roads an exception. This aligned it with the Exceptions Guidance which was publicised after the pilot commenced. The comment about St Brides is anecdotal. The interim report from the Welsh Government shows a significant mean speed reduction (from 28.2mph to 24.9mph).

The statement that “At least one of the trial villages in Monmouthshire actually reverted their trial because it was causing absolute carnage on the roads!” is false. The word “carnage” is defined as “the killing of a large number of people.”. Hence its use is both false and provocative.

Evidence

Petition: The Welsh Government has FAILED to produce ANY convincing evidence to support these claims of safety. This law is being spearheaded by the WG Climate Change department and NOT Health & Safety!! YOU HAVE NOT LISTENED TO US.

Response: As above, there is much evidence that is referenced by the Welsh Government. “The state of the evidence on 20mph speed limits with regards to road
safety, active travel and air pollution impacts”.

And “Explanatory Memorandum to the Restricted Roads (20 mph Speed Limit) (Wales) Order 2022” The responsibility for transport and setting national speed limits lies within the Department for Climate Change. This is entirely reasonable. The benefits of lower limits accrue to many departments including Health and Education and aligns with government requirements such as Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013.

The Welsh Government has conducted due consultation and evaluation of public attitudes to 20mph limits over many years. The most recent results are available on the Welsh Government website 20mph public attitudes research. The statement “The Welsh Government has FAILED to produce ANY convincing evidence to support these claims of safety. ” is false.

Foolish

Petition: The Welsh Government was put there BY THE PEOPLE OF WALES, We are your boss! We demand that this foolish idea be stopped.

Response: This fails to understand the principle of parliamentary democracy whereby elected representatives set laws on behalf of all their constituents. These include those voting and not voting or eligible to vote. Nevertheless, 60% of people in Wales voted in the 2021 Senedd election for parties that had a national 20mph default limit in their election manifestos. It has followed all due democratic processes through Senedd, including:

2018 Debate launched with cross party support.

2019/2020 Action by the government 20mph Task Force to develop recommendations to proceed with national default 20mph implementation planning.

2020 Approval by Senedd to proceed (45 votes to 6).

2022 Approval by Senedd of Statutory Instrument to set national 20mph limit for restricted roads (39 votes to 15)

Mr King said: The petition statement fails to meet any test of whether it is accurate or factual. It misleads potential signatories with anecdotes and comments which are false. It is difficult to see how Members of Sened could take this petition seriously. Once the petition reached 10,000 signatures, the Petitions Committee is able to ask the petitioner if they wish to close the petition and the committee can then make a decision as to whether this should be debated in the Senedd. In this case we understand that the petitioner has requested that the petition run its full course and be available till March 2024.

“To date it has attracted more than 465,000 signatures. While this is, at first sight, a lot, indeed a record – for a Senedd petition, it is not unexpected, particularly taking into account how the debate has been highly politicised on social media.

“Of the 461,014 signatures, 27,139 were from outside Wales, including Canada (28), Falkland Islands, Ireland (50), USA (59), Northern Ireland (158), Scotland (984) and England (25,512). So how does this Welsh count of 433,865 signatures compare with the Welsh adult population? In 2019 the population was 3.136 million. Of these 500,000 were children leaving a net 2.636 million adults. Hence 16% of the adult population of Wales have signed the petition. We suggest that there are three reasons for signing:

A. Those who do not support 20mph for residential areas

What we know from successive UK-wide surveys on transport attitudes conducted by the UK Government is that 71% of people support 20mph for residential streets whilst 14% oppose it. Hence it is reasonable to suggest that those 14% would be inclined to sign a “click and share” petition when a 20mph has been implemented as a “default” for built-up areas across Wales. This contingent would make up 369,040 (14% of 2.636 million) and would comprise 85% of the petition signatures received so far.

B. Those who do not support the current government.

A large number of the petition ‘shares’ on social media are politically motivated. They refer to the change specifically as “blanket” rather than “default”. We know from the 2021 Senedd election results that a total of 289,802 people voted for the Welsh Conservatives, plus a further 8,586 for UKIP. Both of these parties now oppose the national 20mph default. While some may be included in A above, there will be motivation from many supporters of these parties to sign a petition that opposes what the Welsh Government has done regardless of the benefits to the population as a whole.

C. Those who support 20mph but are unhappy with the way it has been implemented.

The national change involved many thousands of roads and signage, including both boundary signs and signs within communities. It would always have been impossible to make all of these changes co-incidentally without huge additional resources in local authorities. It was inevitable and unavoidable that some signage would be contradictory and result in drivers not being fully aware of the limit on certain roads. This in turn led to many drivers incorrectly keeping to 20mph on roads which had been excepted at 30mph. This would have led to many criticising the implementation of the 20mph default whilst at the same time agreeing with its intention. We note that the police in Wales have said that they will focus on educating drivers, rather than issuing speeding tickets during the initial implementation phase.

“Given the scale and complexity of this change, the numbers signing the petition are not surprising. The scale of misinformation and falsehoods both within and surrounding the petition statement, together with the politicising of the issue devalues it to the extent that it is meaningless as a basis for considering public opinion. The petition tells us what is already known, that many drivers would prefer to drive faster than what is appropriate, safe or considerate for many of the under-protected on community streets – the very people who will benefit most from the national default 20mph limit. It could be said that this actually endorses the need for the speed limit change.

“It reflects one side of public opinion on an issue that has majority support and minority, but significant and noisy, opposition. Given the total population of Wales and the petition statement flaws the number of signatures is neither surprising nor indicative of a need to change policy.

“We believe the Welsh Government and local authorities should be congratulated for delivering this life-enhancing and life-preserving 20mph initiative for the people of Wales which does have wide public support. Members of the Senedd should recognise the flaws, misinformation and lack of evidence in this petition when considering whether it is worthy of debate in the Senedd.”