A plan to make it simpler for councillors to impose 20mph limits on roads across Nottinghamshire has been thrown out and branded “political overreach”.
Nottinghamshire County Council’s Labour group had been looking to get the Reform-led authority to support the implementation of 20mph speed limits on residential roads in areas where residents request and generally support them.
The plan would have excluded A-roads.
Labour county councillor Penny Gowland proposed a motion to get the council’s support to make it easier for councillors to make the changes, during a meeting on Thursday (September 18).
However both the leading Reform group and the Nottinghamshire Conservatives rejected the motion, with some members claiming it was “political overreach”.
Cllr James Rawson (Ref) said: “Without doubt lower speed limits make sense outside schools, hospitals, and other dangerous areas. This is obvious to all.
“Let us look at the evidence available in Wales. One Welsh MP quotes: ‘the roll-out has already cost taxpayers £32m, with an estimated economic hit of £9bn’.
“For me to approve this motion means more costs, more red tape, more strain on the busy working men and women who are trying to make ends meet, more left-leaning political overreach. If speeding is a problem the police must prosecute more speeding drivers.
“The common sense majority should not be made to suffer.”
Cllr Keith Girling (Con) suggested councillors purchase a speed gun and take the matter of keeping motorists in check into their own hands.
“The problem is with changing speed limits, and there are loads of roads in Nottinghamshire – where it has been influenced by local councillors – where it is 50mph, then it is 40, then 30, then 50, then 60, and I’ve got the points to prove it, is it can get quite confusing,” he added.
Cllr Gowland said: “One thing I heard on the radio the other day is 20 mph limits are things liberals want, well I can promise you I’m not a liberal, not in any meaning of the word liberal. Car speed affects everybody.”
She said the Labour group was only seeking to make it easier for 20mph limits to be imposed in residential areas to avoid “overreach”.
Cllr Gowland said there were difficulties getting speed limits changed because it is not currently council policy.
Cllr Helen Faccio (Lab) added: “I want to stress this motion is about residential areas, predominantly suburban areas.
“My 10-year-old has just started walking to school by himself, my biggest fear – I live in a suburban area – is that he is going to get hit by a car walking to school. We all know a child is more likely to survive if they are hit at 20mph, than 30mph.”
Nationally, under guidance from the Department for Transport – which was revised in March 2024 – the Government has now given local councils the power to introduce 20 mph restrictions on residential roads.
Government guidance says traffic authorities should only introduce 20mph limits and zones in the right places, over time, and with local support in urban areas and built-up village streets that are primarily residential.
