The Welsh Labour government has been forced to admit there will be changes to the existing default 20mph speed limit. The humiliating U-turn for the Welsh leadership follows a significant backlash to the speed limit imposed last September.
The new speed limit aimed to improve road safety and cut casualties but it has proved controversial across the political spectrum. Almost 500,000 signatories to the petition – a record for the Senedd – have called for it to be scrapped.
The pressure from the Welsh public appears to have reached Labour, as the new transport secretary said the law might now be tailored to focus on areas where children and the elderly were “at risk”.
In the Senedd on Wednesday, Ken Skates acknowledged the backlash and said changes would be made since the “voice of citizens is at the heart of all we do”.
Rather than a default speed limit, which applies to 37 percent of the Welsh road networks – Mr Skate said schools, hospitals and nurseries would be prioritised.
Mr Skates said he had been talking to council officials and councillors and wanted to create “a national listening programme” that everyone could take part in.
The Welsh Conservatives said Mr Skates was responding to its “pressure” on a “hugely unpopular” policy. Speaking on GB News, Welsh Conservatives leader Andrew RT Davies said his party would not give up on calling for the “ridiculous” law to be scrapped.
He added: “We will continue to highlight the stupidity of these rules and this legislation.”
Mr Davies blasted the Labour ‘review’ claim: “I want to change the law and SCRAP Labour and Plaid’s 20mph speed limits. Labour’s talk of ‘reviewing’ the policy is a sham.
“The only way to sort this mess is to scrap it and focus on stopping speeding near sensitive sites like outside schools and hospitals.”
He highlighted a review which suggested that the speed limits could cost the Welsh economy up to £9 billion. There had been fear among Welsh Labour MPs that the policy could cost them in the upcoming general election.
Welsh Conservatives shadow transport secretary Natasha Asghar said: “It is clear that Welsh Conservative pressure is moving the dial among Labour government ministers, whose rhetoric on 20mph has changed dramatically.
“The people of Wales want to get on with their daily lives and businesses wish to flourish, yet Labour’s lack of investment in public transport, road building ban, and 20mph speed limits are slowing them down in doing exactly this”.
Ms Asghar said that Labour ministers in Cardiff Bay are pushing an “anti-motorist agenda”.
