Newham Council is set to roll out “blanket” 20mph speed limits across the borough after seeing more than 1,000 serious crashes a year. The council wants to enforce the speed restrictions on all of its roads in a bid to improve safety and reduce pollution.
Newham Council’s plans
The 20mph speed limit scheme will be rolled out gradually over the next two years across the borough. The council has said that the area will be divided into different lots or zones and that the specific boundaries of these will be decided at a later stage.
Newham saw 5,200 people hurt in collisions over the five years from October 2017 to October 2022, according to TfL data. They included 16 deaths, 598 serious injuries and 4,585 slight injuries, the town hall said. Almost all of the most serious crashes, including the deaths of 15 people, happened on roads where the speed limit was 30mph or over. The council argues that based on research, lower speeds will decrease the chances and severity of collisions, along with increasing the survival rate of pedestrians.
Private roads, the A13 Newham Way and A406 North Circular will not be included, according to the plans due to be signed off by the council’s cabinet next week. City Hall has also requested that the Lower Lea Crossing be exempt from the speed restrictions as they plan to adopt the road once the Silvertown Tunnel is completed.
This announcement comes after reports that the Government is considering a crackdown on councils imposing 20mph speed limits and other traffic restrictions. Earlier this month Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “I think a blanket reduction to 20mph doesn’t make sense. “It [will] just add cost and complexity, it will cause people to make that adjustment and just get in the way of their ordinary lives.”
Sadiq Khan’s Vision Zero plan
New 20mph speed limits were introduced on stretches of roads in five London boroughs earlier this year as part of a Transport for London scheme. The restrictions were put in place along 17 miles of red routes in Camden, Islington, Hackney, Haringey and Tower Hamlets in a bid to improve road safety as part of Sadiq Khan’s Vision Zero plan to eliminate road deaths and serious injury. TfL has accelerated the roll-out so that, by next year, about 125 miles of its roads will have 20mph speed limits.
Final thought
The enforcement of 20mph speed regulations has been branded by the Government as “anti-motorist”. However, as research demonstrates the increased level of safety they provide, it is understandable that local councils seek to enforce speed limits which will reduce traffic incidents.