The Tories who backed 20mph speed limit
SUPPORT FOR LOCAL LIMITS
IN RECENT months the Welsh Conservatives have been relentless in their opposition to the introduction of a 20mph speed limit in Wales. The leader of the Welsh Tories, Andrew RT Davies, has been uncompromising in his opposition to the reduction of most 30mph speed limits to 20mph. Mr Davies has tweeted about the issue eight times in the last 10 days.
The Welsh Tories shadow climate change minister Janet Finch-Saunders has also been vocal in opposing it. Indeed on Tuesday, August 8, she issued a press release saying: “These are very expensive plans and a U-turn is needed from ministers. This transport policy is not popular nor sensible. It would make far more sense to have case-by-case speed limits that are suitable to local areas.”
But it seems that the Welsh Conservatives didn’t always feel this way. In 2018 Mr Davies himself spoke to leaders of the 20’s Plenty group which campaign for a reduction in the speed limit. At the group’s conference that was help in Cardiff in October that year one of the Tories’ own Senedd Members, David Melding, was a speaker where he “specifically discussed setting 20mph as a national default limit and had wide political and institutional support”.
It seems that Mr RT Davies saw the benefits of the 20mph speed limit. He was even willing to pose with the group’s founder and campaign director Rod King with a sign saying: “20’s plenty where people live”.
The group even tweeted the picture saying: “It was great to talk to Andrew RT Davies leader of Welsh Conservatives yesterday about popularity and benefits of 20’s plenty for community streets.”
However since we approached Mr Davies his office has said that this backing was only in relation to the Sully area of Penarth which he represents. We did point out that it seems bizarre that 20mph is plenty in areas where Mr Davies’ constituents live but not where other people live. After being approached for comment Mr Davies’ Twitter account also went to great pains to stress he opposes the “blanket” 20mph limit.
But he is not the only one to have seemingly backtracked. Ms Finch-Saunders, who now has said a “U-turn was needed”, has previously been strongly in favour of the 20pmh limit. In a long speech in the Senedd in 2020 she said that there “is support on these [Conservative] benches for introducing 20mph speed limits.
“I know in Aberconwy it’s been a big issue on some of our rural roads and our local authority found it difficult to actually go from higher speeds to 20mph.”
She added: “It’s a common sense and it’s a safe move. A person is seven times less likely to die if hit at 20mph than 30mph or 10 times if they’re over the age of 60.
“A study aimed to evaluate the impact of the rollout of 20mph speed limits across the city of Bristol found that there had been a reduction in the number of fatal, serious, and slight injuries from road traffic collisions equating to estimated cost savings of over £15m per year and that walking and cycling across the city had increased.
“In fact 20mph is being pursued and encouraged in other parts of the United Kingdom and abroad. Faversham in Kent is set to become the first town in the UK subject to a town-wide 20mph
speed limit. All residential streets in Southend, Essex, will be made 20mph. Perth city centre’s 64 streets have been made 20mph for the past 18 months.
“The Road Safety Authority is supporting cross-party agreed plans to limit speeds to 30mph on almost all roads in Dublin city and suburbs. Milan is setting the same for 22 miles of roads. Washington DC reduced speeds on local roads to 20mph on June 1 and Wellington in New Zealand has agreed 30 kmph for centralcity streets.
“The de-facto standard for safer and people-friendly streets is now 20mph with higher limits only where they can be justified.”
Ms Finch-Saunders went further than just wanting the 20mph limit in urban areas.
She said: “While 20mph would primarily help urban areas I am clear from my communications on the matter with the First Minister that progress in this area will take us a step closer to help tackling high-risk speed limits in rural areas too.
“And, as you can see, I’ve done quite a lot of homework on this because it’s a huge problem and I thank the government for bringing this forward.”
It seems that most of the Tory party was in favour of the 20mph speed limit in 2020. In a debate in the Senedd that year called “Introducing 20mph Speed Limits in Wales” only one Tory MS, Darren Millar, voted against it. The leader of the party at the time, Paul Davies, voted in favour.
Responding to our query on the above Andrew RT Davies MS said: “Labour and Plaid’s blanket 20mph speed limits will cost the Welsh economy £4.5bn with up to a further £60m in implementation costs. The Welsh Conservatives do not support it.”
For context the calculations for the economic hit from the 20mph limit is spread over 30 years.
Mr Davies added: “Of course there are places where 20mph is the right thing to do like Sully in my electoral region. In fact I’ve long campaigned for this to happen.
“While we support a pragmatic approach Labour ministers in the Senedd are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Labour and Plaid’s blanket 20mph zones are disproportionate and Welsh Conservatives would revoke them.”
A recent public health study estimated that the 20mph default speed limit could result in six to 10 lives being saved, as well as 1,200 to 2,000 casualties avoided, each year. The value of preventing these casualties is estimated at around £92m each year.
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “Decreasing speeds not only reduces collisions and saves lives but improves the quality of life – making room on our streets for safer active travel whilst helping reduce our environmental impact.”