This month marks one year since the Labour Welsh Government introduced default 20mph speed limits across Wales, the same 20mph speed limit that the Welsh Government’s own Explanatory Memorandum said would cost the Welsh economy up to £8.9 billion. Yet people from all corners of Wales continue to protest and show their disenchantment with this madcap policy.
Over the past year we have seen a record breaking Senedd petition receiving just under half a million signatures to scrap 20mph speed limits, the former Deputy Minister for Transport’s comments that ‘more common sense’ should have been used, along with Welsh local authorities receiving thousands of requests to revert roads from 20mph to 30mph.
In the Senedd today, the Welsh Conservatives brought forward a Senedd motion noting the anniversary of default 20mph speed limits and calling on the Welsh Government to repeal the default 20mph speed limit.
Commenting after the debate, Welsh Conservative Shadow Minister for Transport, Natasha Asghar MS, said:
“One year on from Labour’s disastrous 20mph rollout and the Welsh Government have continued with their barmy 20mph policy and chosen to ignore the Welsh public.
“The people of Wales want to get on with their daily lives and businesses wish to flourish, yet Labour’s 20mph speed limit is slowing Wales down.
“Today, the Welsh Labour Government and Plaid Cymru alongside the Liberal Democrats showed how truly out of touch they are with the people of Wales by voting against our motion to end the war on motorists and scrap their controversial 20mph speed limits to get Wales moving in the right direction.”
The motion which was debated in the Senedd today read:
To propose that the Senedd:
- Recognises the default 20mph speed limit has been in place in Wales for over one year.
- Notes:
- the 469,571 signatories to the Senedd petition: 'We want the Welsh Government to rescind and remove the disastrous 20mph law';
- the Welsh Government’s own Explanatory Memorandum to The Restricted Roads (20 mph Speed Limit) (Wales) Order 2022 which identified an economic dis-benefit of up to £8.9 billion arising from longer journey times associated with the default 20mph speed limit policy;
- the former Deputy Minister for Transport’s comments that ‘more common sense’ should have been used when implementing Wales’ 20mph speed limit;
- Transport for Wales’ air quality monitoring report wherein half of tested areas saw rises in nitrogen dioxide levels inside 20mph zones compared with outside; and
- Welsh local authorities have received requests for thousands of roads to revert from 20mph to 30mph.
- Calls on the Welsh Government to:
- repeal the default 20mph speed limit; and
- work with Welsh local authorities to deliver a targeted approach to 20mph speed limits with the consent of local people.
