New 20mph street speed limit in attempt to reduce accidents

The long-awaited move to introduce the new zones across hundreds of streets in York is due to be approved next week and the programme is expected to be rolled out across the city during the next two to three years.

York Council’s Labour administration has set aside £500,000 to instigate the new scheme, with a further £100,000 available to counter any unexpected costs.

The announcement that the 20mph speed limits are to be introduced is a watershed in the council’s transport policies and is aimed at cutting serious injuries and deaths on the city’s roads.

On average nearly 100 people are killed or seriously injured on roads in the York area every year, according to official statistics.

It is also hoped that the scheme will promote smoother traffic flows and tackle the poor air quality in York which is seen as among the greatest challenges that the city is facing.

The Yorkshire Post revealed last month that there are between 94 and 163 premature deaths in York each year linked to poor air quality.

York Council’s cabinet member for planning, transport and sustainability, Coun Dave Merrett, claimed that the new speed limits will be largely self-enforced and a major awareness campaign is to be launched.

However, he admitted that North Yorkshire Police could be drafted in to help monitor roads with speed cameras in neighbourhoods where motorists repeatedly flout the new lower limits.

Coun Merrett said: “The principle aim of the 20mph limits will be to make roads safer, while encouraging people to walk or cycle.

“We are hopeful that we can work with communities to promote the new speed limits which will be in the main self-enforced. But we will look towards other measures in areas where the new limits are not being adhered to.”

Portsmouth was the first place in Britain to introduce a 20mph limit on all but its main arterial roads when the scheme was launched in March 2008. Towns and cities including Oxford, Leicester, Norwich and Newcastle-upon-Tyne have subsequently enforced similar zones.

The proposed scheme in York is due to be approved by Coun Merrett on Monday to introduce the 20mph limits in residential streets throughout the city.

The zones are also expected to be rolled out in the largest villages surrounding York including Haxby, Strensall, Wigginton and Companthorpe, as well as Bishopthorpe and Upper Poppleton and Nether Poppleton.

The new limits will be introduced in a clockwise direction beginning in the west of York, and Coun Merrett confirmed that 20mph limits will also be considered for smaller villages.

However, he stressed that many of the smaller settlements are centred around a single high street which would pose difficulties in imposing the lower speed limits on a main thoroughfare.

The possibility of introducing the lower speed limits has been on the cards for several years and extensive trials have been conducted in the South Bank area of the city.

But the previous Liberal Democrat administration, which lost power in the local elections in 2011, maintained that a blanket 20mph zone across the city would be too expensive to enforce.

Meanwhile, the city’s cycling network is due to be revised to take into account major developments. Coun Merrett is due to give the go-ahead on Monday for a public consultation on the revised cycling network map, which will then be fed into the city’s planning blueprint, the Local Development Framework.

The existing network was adopted by the council in 1996 after York became a unitary authority, but it is having to be overhauled to reflect current land use and planned developments.

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