Urban speed limits of 20mph and the traps for unwary drivers known as Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) really shouldn’t be elevated to the level of national politics. It may be an exaggeration to describe all politics as local, but such small-scale traffic edicts certainly are, and not just because central government has a myriad of other things to do.
This is not good news for those who had hoped that the proliferation of no-go zones for drivers had reached its limits
So when the new Transport Secretary, Louise Haigh, said in a recent podcast, ‘There’s no way me sitting in my office can say “this road in Chester should be a 20mph road or not” – it’s completely ridiculous… Those kinds of decisions should absolutely be made at a local level by communities and not dictated to or stoked by the centre,’ this all sounded like a welcome injection of common sense into what has become one of the most heated debates in local politics.
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