ENFORCEMENT OF 20MPH LIMIT RAMPS UP IN PROBLEM AREAS

on new 20mph limit roads in Wales is to be ramped up this month. Gosafe teams will target roads which data has shown pose the greatest safety risk.

Some motorists have already been prosecuted on new 20mph roads for driving dangerously.

But most speeding drivers have been offered roadside “engagement” and this will continue throughout 2024 on roads where risks are apparently lower. This process, called Operation Ugain, started on January 9 and gives drivers the choice of sitting a 10-minute presentation nearby, or accepting a prosecution.

However, from the start of this week, speeding offences will be automatically enforced in areas deemed to be more dangerous. This date marks six months since the new 20mph law was introduced.

In North Wales, no additional monitoring on 20mph roads has yet been carried out by Gosafe to determine safety risks. Traffic offence data has been collected only in Mid and South Wales, and only since November. Though average speeds have remained largely the same – at 28.3mph – the number of “offences” has steadily increased as monitoring activity has risen. Last month there was a big jump in recorded offences in South and Mid Wales, from 134 in January to 351 in February. The highest speed recorded by Go Safe teams was also up, from 39mph in January to 41mph in February.

Separate data has suggested that drivers in North Wales have been more compliant with the country’s new default 20mph speed limits.

Gosafe, the road safety partnership, said that on most roads, its “first response” to 20mph speeding concerns will still be to use Operation Ugain. But as of this Monday, March 18, targeted enforcement is being carried out on roads assessed to have “emerging concerns”. Gosafe said this is usual practice for all its activities.

Assistant Chief Constable Trudi Meyrick, roads policing lead for Wales, said: “Introducing enforcement in new 20mph areas is the next step of our engagement-led approach. We have continued to review driver behaviour and the response to the change in default speed limit, whilst engaging with communities across Wales with Operation Ugain.

“Enforcement will be used proportionately and fairly. We’ll continue to engage with people across Wales and we’re confident a proportionate level of enforcement can now be used to keep us moving towards safer roads.”

Gosafe said it has always used a combination of engagement and enforcement. The former is prioritised to support behaviour change, the latter only when “justified” said the partnership. In other words, enforcement is “always done in the right place, at the right time, for the right reason, to make our roads safer”, said Go Safe. It added: “The public can now be confident that where they have concerns about speeding in their communities, that these areas will be reviewed and enforced, where appropriate.”

In the first seven weeks after Operation Ugain was launched, nearly 25,000 vehicles were monitored by Gosafe teams. Of these, 97% of drivers were not exceeding 25mph. Where speeding drivers declined the offer of engagement, they were prosecuted. In January and February 2024, nine people were prosecuted.

Usual police guidance for enforcement thresholds is no less than 10% over the limit, plus 2mph. However Chief Police Officers in Wales have allowed a more lenient threshold on 20mph roads while motorists come to terms with the slower default limit: 10% plus 4mph, meaning prosecutions start at 26mph.