Agenda item

To consider the following Notice of Motion which has been submitted in accordance with Council Meeting Procedure Rule 4 (b)(iv) on 18 April 2023.

Proposed by: Councillor Joel Williams

Seconded by: Councillor Callum Davies

Councillors:  Brown-Reckless, Cowan, Davies, Driscoll, Lancaster, Littlechild, Melbourne, Reid-Jones, Robson

This Council notes;

1.    The Welsh Labour Government recently introduced The Restricted Roads (20 mph Speed Limit) (Wales) Order 2022, reducing the default speed limit in Wales from 30 mph to 20 mph.

2.    A petition calling for the Welsh Government to remove the 20mph blanket speed limit as of Friday 29th 2023 had over 447,000 signatures. The total number of signatures surpasses the number of constituency votes Welsh Labour achieved across Wales in the recent 2021 Senedd Elections.

3.    The direct cost to the Welsh economy of default 20 mph speed limits will be £4.5billion over a 30-year period. The Welsh Government admitted this could reach £8.9billion.

4.     Cardiff Council, as a Local Highway Authority has the legal powers to exempt roads in the City from reducing to the default 20 mph speed limit. The Council has only applied this power to exempt a small number of roads in the City from reducing to 20 mph.

5.    The change to default 20 mph speed limits in Cardiff has increased congestion and travel times for road users including bus companies, including Cardiff Bus; a Council-owed asset.

6.    The change to default 20 mph speed limits in Cardiff has increased response times for emergency call outs, including emergency services and breakdown/recovery vehicles therefore potentially putting the public at increased risk of harm.

7.    The reduction to default 20 mph speed limits will impact deliveries by slowing down drivers and this could increase the time for deliveries and add costs on for businesses and/or customers.

8.    The Welsh Government has given Local Highway Authorities the power to introduce part time speed limits where a highway authority considers that an exception to the default 20 mph speed limit is appropriate at some times but not at others. Cardiff Council does not appear to have applied this power to roads which should have remained at 30 mph.

9.    The cost of introducing default 20 mph speed limits in Wales has cost £32 million. This money could have been more wisely spent on frontline public services including our NHS, schools and filling in our pot holes.

10.  The change to default 20 mph speed limits does not align with the Council’s “stronger, fairer, greener” policy platform.

 This Council calls on Cardiff Council, acting as the Local Highway Authority;

1.    To exempt all roads within Cardiff that had 30 mph speed limits before the introduction of The Restricted Roads (20 mph Speed Limit) (Wales) Order 2022 from remaining at 20 mph and therefore revert these roads back to 30 mph speed limits.

2.    To undertake an urgent review into the adverse impacts of the default 20 mph speed limit and publish findings within 3 months of the date of this Motion being debated.

3.    Once roads in Cardiff revert back to 30 mph speed limits; work with local communities to ensure any requests to reduce roads to 20 mph speed limits are undertaken on a case-by[1]case basis.