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A North Wales council has now changed dozens of 20mph roads back to 30mph. Welsh Government changed the national default speed limit on restricted roads in Wales from 30mph to 20mph in September 2023.
This decision ignited a massive public outcry and a petition signed by hundreds of thousands of individuals. Despite the early signs of a reduction in crashes and deaths on our roads there is still a clamour from many for changes to be made.
Councils have always had the powers to keep some roads at 30mph but there have been wide discrepancies in how these powers have been used. For example Cyngor Gwynedd created over 80 ‘exception’ roads – while other councils in North Wales had less than 10.
Welsh Government adjusted the guidance last year under Transport minister Ken Skates – with the belief this would see more roads go back to 30mph.
There has been a wide variation in how councils have responded with some like Denbighshire not making any changes. A full list of what roads have or could change is here.
Wrexham council has made the most changes – reverting 52 stretches of road back 30mph. But Wrexham Council said it is committed to working with partners to ensure people stick to the new speed limits – a task one driver said showed they were “living in cloud cuckoo land”.
Deputy Leader Councillor David A Bithell, who also leads on Strategic Transport in the county borough, says the council will continue to work with the North Wales Police GoSafe team. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox
The council said: “The GoSafe initiative aims to help keep people safe on Welsh roads through education and enforcement – educating motorists to drive safely and legally, while taking enforcement against people who drive dangerously and put themselves and others at risk. GoSafe is responsible for fixed speed cameras, red light cameras, average speed cameras, and mobile enforcement cameras.”
Councillor Bithell said: “We’ve listened to our communities and successfully reverted 52 stretches of highway back from 20mph to 30mph. This was all done in accordance with revised criteria from Welsh Government, who fully funded all the works.
“Now all the signage is in place, we want to do everything we can to ensure drivers stick to the new speed limits. We get lots of complaints about speeding from our communities and hopefully the changes made will address concerns raised in the consultation.
“Officers in our traffic section already work closely with the GoSafe team, and we’ll be looking to continue working together.”
But one driver said: “They are living in cloud cuckoo land if they think that people will stick to the speed limit. There are always those who want to go faster than the limit.”
Another added: “At the tax payers expense! Waste of money in the first place.”
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