Senior Hampshire councillor backs plans for new urban streets to be limited to 20mph

Following a report where Hampshire residents and group campaigners made clear that 20mph would make roads safer, the Department for Transport (DfT) has started considering whether 20mph could become the standard speed limit in built-up areas.

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According to the planning document ‘the default should be to work to a design speed limit of 20mph in urban environment. For residential streets, a maximum design speed of 20mph should normally be an objective, with significantly lower speeds usually desirable.’

The document, which is still not finalised and presented to ministers, is described as the DfT’s ‘key piece of guidance on designing streets that put place above movement’.

Hampshire County Council’s executive lead member for universal services, Cllr Nick Adams-King, said: ‘This suggestion from the government is helpful, but we also need to take it into account because if there is a new national policy to bring forward, we need to make sure that Hampshire is doing the same thing and not something that is contradicted. We need to see what they are talking about.

‘I absolutely agree that every single time that we are looking at a new development within which they are roads, we should be saying that these roads must be 20mph because that changes the nature of the community from day one, and that’s a great thing because you are beginning to get people used to it.’

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Officers are planning to make a recommendation on 20mph zones to the council’s cabinet this summer.

Cllr Adms-King added: ‘There is in some places the assumption that if you reduce the speed limits its stops people from speeding. The evidence doesn’t point to that always it is the case.

‘Changing the speed limit, bringing an immediate 20mph limit everywhere, would not necessarily be the solution to speed limit problems unless properly enforced.

‘We need to take our time to work on how best to alter our policies to allow 20mph. Alter our policies in a way our neighbours and communities say “yes we want one, or maybe we don’t”. There has to be community support behind the decision.’