Speed limits outside every school in England’s largest county are being reviewed as North Yorkshire Council takes “unprecedented and coordinated” action to improve road safety for young people.
The council will be assessing more than 400 education sites across the county, including schools, nurseries, and colleges, starting with those where speed limits are the highest.
It has adopted a presumption in favour of lowering speed limits in these locations.
In total, 22 sites have been reviewed so far, with the first reduced limits introduced outside Cundall Manor School, with the 60mph limit reduced to 40mph, and outside Appleton Wiske Primary School to, with the 30mph limit reduced to 20mph.
A further 16 schemes are in the process of being consulted upon, with lower speed limits expected to be introduced there. Separately, plans for North Yorkshire’s largest wide-scale 20mph limit introduction covering seven schools in the south and west of Harrogate are progressing.
Cllr Keane Duncan, executive member for highways and transport, said: “This is an unprecedented and coordinated effort to improve road safety for our young people.
“There are more than 400 sites to review across the county’s vast area, but we are committed to reviewing each and every one.
“We’re focussing first on the schools where speeds are highest. For example, there are 14 further schools where the speed limit nearby is 60mph. We want to consider reduced speeds here as a priority.
“We will then work through schools with 50mph, 40mph and 30mph limits to draw up plans for lower speeds. We have also already considered a number of standalone requests from the community in these locations.
“We are working with schools and local councillors at every stage, ensuring they are consulted and supportive of our plans.”
Cllr Annabel Wilkinson, executive member for education, and local councillor for Morton-on-Swale and Appleton Wiske, said: “Ensuring the safety of our children is a top priority and I’m glad to see we are actively looking at reviewing all educational sites, including Appleton Wiske Primary School.
“Reducing speed limits outside schools should result in fewer accidents and will create a safer environment for students, parents, and staff, ensuring that every journey to and from school is as safe as possible.
“I would also urge all drivers to respect the limits and drive with care in school zones.”
North Yorkshire Council is also preparing to introduce a new speed management strategy to guide a proactive review of speed limits on its entire 5,700-mile network. This is expected to be approved in the next few months.
Cllr Duncan added: “We will not take a blanket approach to speed limits. We have rejected calls for 20mph to be introduced as the new default across our towns and villages, opting instead for a tailored approach that ensures consultation with communities.
“We will ultimately review speed limits on every inch of our network. We will assess limits on urban roads in our towns and villages, but on our rural roads too.
“We will review limits on a phased basis, backed up by extra resource and investment, building an ongoing pipeline of schemes for delivery.
“It will ensure we have a consistent, proactive and countywide approach, not only to 20mph limits, but all speed limits, with strong democratic oversight and an emphasis on consultation.”
Agreed Hugh.
Rod King, Lymm
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The video clearly shows how some people still don’t understand about speeding and the consequences thereof – and I don’t just mean the driver of the car or the pedestrian.
If I was Rod King and other advocates of speed management, I’d be thinking “We rest our case”
Hugh Jones, South Wirral
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The dangerous myth that 20mph is automatically safer persists, with no evidence of its effectiveness in terms of reduced collisions/casualties. Quite the opposite, in fact.
The many unintended consequences of 20mph include pedestrians feeling safe and taking less care, and dangerous overtakes triggered by frustration.
There will always be drivers who exceed the limit – that proportion increases when speeds are slowed below what feels ‘natural’.
This recent YouTube clip from the 20mph area of Forest Gate illustrates this – a distracted pedestrian lulled into feeling safe and a car well over the limit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bH4yj3uQ-FY
Eric Bridgstock, St Albans
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As a North Yorkshire resident, Mayor of one its towns, Malton, and campaigning with residents across thr County for a proper default 20mph policy “20mph as norm” across our towns and villages where people and motors mix, not just outside schools, I wholeheartedly back Rod King MBE, who has tirelessly campaigned on this and set up 20s Plenty specifically for this. Thanks to his organisations support and the concerns of residents across N North Yorkshire, 154 parishes (representing one third of the parishes area of the County) have Town or Parish Councils that have voted to support 20mph as the norm where people and motors mix in their parishes and across the County. Keane Duncan knows this, he knows if he has read and understood his emails that Wales has 28% reduction in serious injuries and deaths figures for their 20mph/30mph areas since 20mph became the norm there. Wake up Keane and stop living in a time warp: 20mph is increasingly the new norm, best practice, leading to safer calmer quieter streets. I won Campaigner of the Year Award in 2023 thanks to the team led nationally by Rod and supported by thousands of residents in petitions and action on the ground. Rod has won Road Safety Awards, as has the Welsh Government. Wake up North Yorkshire Council!
Ian conlan, Malton North Yorkshire
--4
Of course this is only “unprecedented” for Cllr Duncan and N. Yorkshire as it drags itself kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. And it is only just into the first decade of the 21st Century when “just outside schools” was tried and then abandoned by so many councils which recognised that children don’t live or use roads “just outside schools”, but actually live “within communities” and most of their exposure to risk from vehicles was outside “outside schools” as they walked or cycled to school, friends, grandparents, shops, and play places. And that is why 20mph “as a norm” has become the prevalent policy on making our public places safe for children, and so many others, within communities.
Cllr Duncan has been tilting at the “blanket” windmill for years which no-one is advocating. Communities and parishes throughout North Yorkshire have been calling for the presumption that 20mph is the right speed limit to be set within communities with conscious and evidential decisions being made where a higher limit would be appropriate.
Any decision to maintain 30mph roads where there are obvious vulnerable road user use without due consideration of the consequences could well open the council to future civil liabilities where there is a vulnerable road user casualty. This is fully explored on our website at https://www.20splenty.org/the_civil_liability_myth_busted
So please Cllr Duncan. Stop gaslighting with your claims of “unprecedented action” with timescales lasting years and even decades. The world has moved on and 20mph is becoming the norm. Your delay in making 20mph the norm for North Yorkshire communities will only defer the inevitable and in the meantime impose unnecessary risk within communities for the most vulnerable people within them.
MR ROD KING, Lymm
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