The call for 20mph is growing louder among English councils

Adrian Berendt offers a summary of key points raised during a groundbreaking webinar that discussed how to implement 20mph zones

More than 500 highways professionals and local community representatives attended the two-hour ‘Delivering 20’ webinar hosted by Landor LINKS and 20’s Plenty for Us on 9 October.

Councillors and officers from Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Surrey and Oxfordshire,  along with Project Centre, shared their expertise and practical experience of implementing 20mph.  

Of the 154 Highway Authorities in England, 85 were represented, together with 11 combined authorities and over 100 parish, town and district councils. As well as those attending on the day – it was Landor LINKS’ second biggest webinar audience ever – the YouTube video recording has so far attracted more than 600 views. This demonstrates the high level of demand from professionals on how to implement 20mph in England.

The webinar’s timing followed open support for 20mph from Transport Secretary Louise Haigh and aligns with the Department for Transport’s promised road safety strategy and its objective of increasing active and sustainable travel.

Attendees heard how different authorities were seeking to achieve lower speeds on their roads, with 20mph a key intervention. In introducing the webinar, I set the context by highlighting the results from Wales following the introduction of 20mph nationally. With drivers lowering their speeds, sometimes by up to 6mph, Welsh residents had benefitted from a 29% reduction in road casualties in the last quarter of 2023, an effect not seen in England.

The four local authority speakers then discussed the multiple benefits of lower speeds. While each highlighted unique circumstances, opportunities and challenges in their authority, they all found ways to deliver what their communities wanted: civilised, quieter, healthier, better streets and places that are more vibrant.

Common themes

There was widespread agreement about the need to respond to residents’ wishes in realising the multiple individual and public health benefits of 20mph: reducing road casualties within a safe systems/vision zero context; raising the numbers walking and cycling; lowering pollution; and contributing to climate change goals.

All agreed about the importance of communication. Explaining how 20mph brings a wide range of benefits is paramount to making the latent support for quieter streets tangible for the whole community. For example, Cornwall is using the strapline of “Life’s better at 20mph” (for residents and tourists alike), together with vox pops, logos and give-aways like 20mph shopping trolley tokens.

There was also common agreement about the need to bring communities along with the proposals. While this didn’t mean schemes being vetoed by small but vociferous minorities, it might require compromise about the details of schemes in specific areas.

Different positions

The commitment to wide area 20mph by the four local authorities was clear. It was interesting to observe how 20mph had been introduced by councils across the political spectrum. The differences in approach to implementation were not generally because of party differences but arose due to different historical positions.

Cllr Alex Beckett, Chair of Cambridgeshire’s Highways Committee, explained how the council’s joint administration wrote 20mph into their power sharing agreement. He also noted the cross-party consensus for the approach.

The authority took a twin-track approach of ‘top-down’ for towns and cities and ‘bottom-up’ for villages. 

Top-down in urban areas was partly driven by cost efficiencies and partly by the availability of time-limited funding from the Mayoral Combined Authority. 

Bottom-up for villages that asked for 20mph was largely the result of the need to space out delivery of the countywide policy over a number of years. So far, Cambridgeshire has committed £1.2m, with more funding likely needed in future years.

Cllr Beckett recommended engaging the public ahead of any formal consultation on a Traffic Regulation Order with the frequent use of a few key statistics, rather than overwhelming people with data. This helped to raise response rates during the consultation and to overcome myths.

Cornwall benefitted from a newly elected administration’s manifesto pledge to introduce 20mph where wanted.  Adam O’Neill, Programme Development & Delivery Lead and Ian Findler, Principal Transport Officer, described how, following the election, the new administration asked parishes whether they wanted lower limits. With 135 local councils saying “yes” to 20mph, this community endorsement led to a policy decision to embark on a county-wide roll out of 20mph in all settlements.

Cornwall’s budget for the 20mph programme is £3.7m – around £6 per head. By investing £650,000 in new signs, Cornwall estimates that it can save £2m over 10 years (£200,000 a year), since some signs in 20mph places do not need illuminating, as they would otherwise on lit roads remaining at 30mph.

Oxfordshire’s original budget was £8m for delivering 20mph across the authority, outside Oxford, which already had lots of 20mph roads. With the programme nearing completion, the budget is significantly underspent and the actual cost will likely be nearer £4m, or £7 per person. 

Cllr Andrew Gant, Cabinet member for Oxfordshire’s Transport Management, had a mandate to implement the 20mph policy. He spoke about the need to bring local communities along with proposals and stressed that a consultation is not a referendum, and that it was the highway authority which had to make the decision about local speed limits. Sometimes compromises about schemes had to be made, or decisions deferred until a consensus could be achieved on the specifics which roads to exclude from a scheme.

Surrey County Council has taken a rather different approach, with a focus on rural as well as urban roads. Road Safety & Sustainable School Travel Team Manager Duncan Knox said the county’s new Vision Zero had reduced the national 60mph speed limit on rural unrestricted roads. While this meant that most roads became 30mph or 40mph, 20mph was clearly appropriate on some rural single-track roads. Its commitment to Vision Zero means that Surrey is also looking to reduce the speed limit on many of its urban roads to 20mph as a way of reducing the casualty burden.

Another difference in Surrey is its investment in average speed cameras as a way of increasing compliance.

Scott Lester, Regional Director of webinar sponsor Project Centre explained the progress being made on 20mph in London. Here 21 out of the capital’s 33 councils now have more than 75% of roads that are covered by 20mph speed limits. In total, 59% of all borough-managed roads across London now have a 20mph limit. 

Across the TfL-managed Red Route network of arterial roads, 264km (30%) is now subject to a 20mph speed limit, up from 35km in 2016. Almost all of the roads in Inner London have a 20mph speed limit.

An ‘eruption’ of interest

Following a question and answer session with the speakers, 20’s Plenty Director and National Community Champion, Anna Semlyen concluded the webinar by summarising how the debate is now clearly about how local authorities in England can best implement 20mph, rather than whether to do so. With that in mind, presenters welcomed the opportunity to be part of a group of highways authorities discussing how to implement 20mph and 20’s Plenty for Us is exploring how that can be achieved.

Finally, Anna Semlyen said that 20’s Plenty for Us would be pleased to help authorities with their 20mph implementation by email at: info@20splenty.org

Reflecting on the webinar, Rod King MBE, Chair of 20’s Plenty for Us CIC, said: “A month ago we said that the ‘tectonic plates’ on transport were shifting as we transitioned to a government that supported the liveability, public health and road danger reduction benefits of 20mph as an urban/village norm. This eruption of interest in English local authorities are implementing 20mph is clear evidence of that shift and brings an opportunity to make all our places better places to be.”

The full webinar can be viewed on YouTube. 

Adrian Berendt is a Director at 20’s Plenty for Us