Welsh Conservatives planning to force a final vote on 20mph speed limit
The Welsh Conservatives have said they are planning to force another vote on the 20mph Wales speed limit.
Wales will be the first part of the UK to introduce a 20mph speed limit across the country as most residential roads with a 30mph speed limit change to 20mph.
Newyddion S4C report that a motion in the Senedd on Wednesday will call on the Welsh Government to repeal the law that will take effect on Sunday 17 September.
Conservative spokesman for transport Natasha Asghar said public opposition was “more pronounced” as the date approached.
The scheme will cost £33m and slow down the emergency services and put jobs at risk, she said.
“Next week the Welsh Conservatives will vote against the introduction of the 20mph limit,” said Asghar.
“It’s time for Labour and Plaid Cymru to listen to their constituents and do the same.”
First Minister Minister Mark Drakeford this week defended the change with reference to the example of Spain.
Wales will follow a similar approach to that taken in Spain where the speed limit on most roads was changed to 20mph in 2019.
Since then, Spain has reported 20% fewer deaths on urban roads, and deaths have fallen by 34% for cyclists and 24% for pedestrians.
“Reducing speeds not only saves lives, it helps build safer communities for everyone, including drivers – creating better places to live our lives,” said the First Minister.
“It will help make our streets quieter, reduce noise pollution, and slower speeds will also give more people confidence to cycle and walk around their local areas and encourage children to play outdoors.
“Evidence from around the world is clear – reducing speed limits reduces collisions and saves lives.”
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It suited them well enough until the Senedd adopted it.
Just one more example of tories standing up for mindless self-interest and one more reason to vote against them always
Isnt she the MS for London?
Trying to scare people, “slow down the emergency services ” she said. Let us all be honest here, nobody expacts the emergency services to strictly obey the highway code during an emergency, while trying to save a life.
Doesn’t the Highway Code in fact stipulate exceptions for vehicles of the emergency services when on emergency calls?
Please could NC do something about the sometimes appalling English in articles? In this one we have ‘Labor’ and it’s not uncommon to see abominations such as the use of less in place of fewer, and Americanisations such as ‘train station’ in place of railway station.
Paddy, you are correct. I didnt know this, but David Cameron’s gov in 2012 gave exceptions to the emergency services to break the speed limit. MS Asghar seems not to know this either, strange, as it was her party that did this.
I agree with you comment regarding ‘train station’. I don’t like it at all. We might be hearing ‘gas station’ before long. Regarding ‘Less’ for non-count nouns and ‘fewer’ for count-nouns. I don’t like ‘less’ being used for count-nouns, but it looks as if ‘fewer’ is being eroded in favour of the blanket use of ‘less’. The trouble is that modern English has only one word for an increase, ie ‘more’, so you have ‘more water’ and ‘more people’, but ‘less water’ and ‘fewer people’. Thus modern English has built-in assymetry. According to Fowler’s English usage, up to about 1600,… Read more »
On social media the Welsh Conservatives are now saying they “support 20mph speed limits in heavily pedestrianised areas”. Does anyone know what is a “heavily pedestrianised area”? They must know what they mean! For example, are the currently 20mph villages of St Brides Major and Sully (20mph was actively campaigned for here by Andrew RT Davies) in the Vale of Glamorgan really “heavily pedestrianised” areas?
Queen Street?
The Welsh Conservatives are below contempt. I can recall back in 2010 when Wales was the first nation in the UK to introduced a 10p charge for single-use plastic bags in shops and the Welsh Tories criticised the move only a few years later to congratulate the English Conservative government in London when they adopted the same policy across the border in 2021. They are playing politics with our children’s lives. Cretins! 😤
Keep asking for another vote until you get the result you want.
That’s the EU way.
And the relevance of the EU to this article is?
it doesn’t slow the emergency services down. They can blue light and break a speed limit when they need to
Not when the roads are log-jammed with all other vehicles driving under 20mph. I see it daily here on a 30 that was 40.
Not a fan of a blanket 20mph speed limit.
Just for starters it will cause more traffic jams as traffic is slowed down and more pollution as we all drive on our brakes.
Shame the Senedd don’t provide a top notch public transport system in Wales so that we can choose to leave our cars at home and get the bus. Impossible right now given the state of Cardiff Bus, expensive, unreliable and infrequent.
So Tories now say that the public’s opinion can change over time in order to bring this already settled issue up AGAIN.
They were claiming the opposite after the Brexit debacle destroyed society as we know it. THEN the 2016 advisory referendum result was the immutable unchangeable will of all people forever.
I think its quite clear to most people that a blanket 20 mph limit across Wales in all the 30 mph zones is not the correct way to do it. We all know of roads around were we live that really 30 mph is probably not right and does not justify such a slow speed. These will now be 20 mph which is wrong. These roads are not inner city roads as most of Wales is very sparsely populated. Most people back 20 mph in the areas of high populations including villages. Although they are silent i am sure most… Read more »
I dont think you understand how this works, as there is no ” blanket ” 20 mph speed limit on all roads of 30 mph. If you read the official Gov statements, councils have the right to determine which roads are affected and Monmouth council has already dropped the 20 mph limit on 2 roads in Caldicot.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63782237%23:~:text%3DFrom%2520September%25202023%252C%252020mph%2520will,a%2520main%2520road%2520in%2520Severnside.&ved=2ahUKEwjusv3yxZ6BAxVBh_0HHbpWAKAQFnoECA8QBQ&usg=AOvVaw0l-DynGjaGNNo47fKmARze
Thanks but i can assure you i do understand how it works- the exceptions are very few basically because the Councils on which this has been lumbered do not have the resources to do a proper survey of all roads in their areas. This is yet another piece of legislation by Welsh Govt which passes the buck entirely onto local councils who are struggling all ready.
Nope. The proposed law as it stands is fine. And more importantly has been settled for some time.
This is just about the Tories’ desperate attempt to grasp onto relevancy by their fingernails. An out of touch corrupt party who are out of ideas
You probably are right about the tories trying to be relevant etc. However what they are saying is being said by a large number of Welsh people and they have a right for their voice to be heard, or would you say ignore anyone who disagrees.
Rather than a large number of Welsh people being against the 20mph limit I think that (if the comments on NationCymru are anything to go by) the anti sentiment is amplified by a much smaller group many of whom have never commented on any other issue here, a number of whom are also anti devolution and others that say they live in England.
In Spain the residential speed limit is 20km/h (NOT 20mph as stated above), which equates to 12.43mph. (i.e. 7.67mph lower in Spain).
Residential areas 20km/h –
In built-up areas 50km/h –
Outside built-up areas 90km/h – 100km/h (according to local signs) – Motorways 120km/h
From the CONservative playbook.
I don’t care who it is that forces a vote…the people have never been asked about this ridiculous limit…Dripford hid it in the manifesto & is too scared to put it to the vote because he knows it will be booted!
Tories in Wales are IRRELEVENT now and will be more so come the next General Election and even more so in the next Welsh government elections
Complete stupidity. There should be national referendum.
How many lives will be lost due to 9bln impact in Welsh economy (ergo less taxes/NHS finance impact)?
How many lives will be lost because emergency services won’t be able to make in time?
How many lives will be lost because of higher emmisions?
CARS ARE NOT GEARED to be efficient at 20mph. Too high rpms for 2nd gear, way too low for 3rd gear.
Dual mass fly-wheel, DPF, fuel injectors and other components will suffer greatly.
I did a regular journey as a volunteer driver today. Totally confused, as told to look at road lights as I travelled. Usually my attention is on the road ahead and traffic approaching sideways, not on 30 ft up in the air.
No signs to say 20 in many areas, in one place road sign at side of road said 30 and on road itself said 20? Have you thoroughly thought this through?