Set out the case for extra speed limits (From Gazette Series)

Set out the case for extra speed limits

SIR - The timely Comment (Gazette, December 5) not only highlighted the excess of highway signage but also the rash of new, lower speed limits in South Gloucestershire, of which Tortworth is the latest.

I had always wondered why speed limits had multiplied like rabbits during the existence of South Gloucestershire Council. It appears that this situation has arisen partly as a result of Government Circular Roads 1/93, which removed the requirement for a Local Traffic Authority to obtain the Secretary of State's consent for new speed limits. In other words the power to impose limits since 1993 has been wholly delegated to the council.

However the circular sets out clear parameters within which a council should operate.

Advice in annex A to the circular says that 30 and 40mph speed limits are appropriate for roads that are "built up with development in depth on both sides of the road" although 40 mph zones can also be used where the frontage is partially built up, which is defined to be "exceeding 50 percent of frontages". Conversely 50 and 60mph limits are appropriate for locations that are "lightly built up" with "some frontage development", namely "rural roads" (my emphasis).

Let us take the latest proposal for Tortworth (the B4509) as an example. This is quite plainly a rural road. It does not have built development on more than half its frontage. To impose a 40mph zone along this stretch of road is clearly contrary to the quoted Government advice.

If the council was to act in contravention of such advice in other areas of decision making, such as planning, not only would its decision be overturned on appeal but the council would be vulnerable to an award of costs against it for unreasonable behaviour.

However there does not appear to be a right of appeal against such irrational decisions. So what is the average driver to do? In practice most people's remedy is to ignore the limit but in my view this is a sad state of affairs and only serves to further undermine respect for speed limits, which are truly justified and necessary in the interests of highway safety, in built up areas.

However it seems to me that there is a belated realisation that there are too many speed limits being imposed.

The letter from Giles Chichester MEP (Gazette, December 12) illustrates the point and I further understand that a Somerset MP, Mr Liddell-Grainger has also concluded that speed restrictions have gone too far.

Our own representatives seem strangely quiet on this topic. So I openly challenge any of them, after examining the recent analysis of Avon and Somerset's accident data on www.safespeed.org.uk - which suggests that driving in excess of the speed limit was the main cause of only three percent of accidents (not 33 percent as claimed by Brake etc) - to set out the case for what I regard to be a waste of our council tax.

Pete Drew, Marlborough House, Rockhampton.