A number of Council’s have adopted 20’s Plenty policies – making the default speed limit on residential roads 20mph rather than 30mph.
Evidence shows vehicles travelling at 20mph cause 20% fewer casualties, 25% less pollution and 50% less noise than a car travelling at 30mph.
Currently 26 million people in the UK live in an area where 20mph is accepted as the normal speed limit on a residential road. You can find a list of the Council’s that have adopted 20mph as the norm here on the website of the 20s Plenty Organisation.
20’s plenty campaigns have tremendous public support. Recent polling has suggested that over 70% of people favour 20mph speed limits in residential areas.
There are many Council’s that are still to commit to 20mph speed limits in residential areas. Below are some campaign materials that will help you fight for 20mph speed limits in your local area.
- Template Council Motions (for both Councils with and without the powers to directly introduce 20mph zones) can be found here
- Focus Drop-In Articles (for both both Councils with an without the powers to directly introduce 20mph zones) can be found here (preview here)
- A simple template press release to back up your 20’s Plenty campaign can be downloaded here
says
The responsibility for setting the correct local speed limit is with the council as Highways Authority and not the police. Police can advise but cannot veto. Whether the police enforce 20mph limits is a choice for them. Some police forces are very active on 20mph limits and this can be self-funding from admin fees from Speed Awareness Courses. In 2021 Avon and Somerset Police issued 23,338 speeding tickets on 20mph limited roads.
With regard to 20mph limits being required to be self-enforcing, this is not the case. The guidance actually says "generally self-enforcing" and that councils can use many other ways to gain compliance beyond physical calming. These include additional signage, engagement, education, enforcement and light touch engineering.
If anyone would like further explanation on how 20mph limits can be set then please email me at rod.k@20splenty.org . There is a recent guide to setting 20mph limits at https://www.20splenty.org/20mph_a_blueprint
Thank you for all your interest and support.
says
‘Such schemes’ are not meant to be self enforcing - that’s what county councillors say who are not keen to implement schemes. 20mph speed limits are enforceable just like any other speed limit.
Stewart Golton says
It will be worth checking with your local police service to check whether this means that they will not turn up to enforce speeding because such schemes are meant to be ‘self-enforcing’, in the same way they would to a 30mph road.