Community representatives serving a swathe of North Yorkshire from Filey to Thirsk are set to vote on whether to join other areas of the county in pressing for a 20mph speed limit to be trialled in built up areas.
A notice of motion put forward by opposition members of Tory-run North Yorkshire County Council is pressing for the authority to extend a proposed default 20mph zone pilot scheme beyond the urban Harrogate and Knaresborough area to the largely rural 825sq mile Thirsk and Malton constituency to improve the quality of its results.
It remains unclear if the authority will approve the Harrogate pilot, particularly after executive members said they faced a choice over spending money on repairing roads or introducing the lower speed limits.
The call to the authority’s Thirsk and Malton constituency committee on Friday is just the latest pressure being exerted on the council to lower speed limits in built up areas following an extensive review by elected members concluding that 20mph zones should not become the default limit in towns and villages as campaign group 20’s Plenty wants.
As a result of the review, last January the council widened the criteria to make it easier for communities to get 20mph zones introduced, by including an evaluation of the sense of place and community and how a 20mph
speed limit may positively impact both.
Last week the authority’s transport and environment scrutiny heard numerous villages across the county had applied for 20mph zones and were being considered under the revised policy.
Leaders of the authority are holding talks with North Yorkshire Police to understand why the force does not enforce 20mph zones, which some councillors have contended makes introducing the limits counter-productive as vehicles can drive at any speed through such areas..
Some members of the scrutiny committee said they felt the council’s revised policy went a long way towards addressing the concerns of North Yorkshire’s communities, others were more guarded, describing it as “encouraging progress”.
Hunmanby and Sherburn division councillor Michelle Donohue-Moncrieff’s motion calls on the council’s executive to consider including the settlements of Thirsk and Malton constituency where a benefit has been identified.
Councillor Steve Mason, who has seconded the call to extend the proposed 20mph trial, suggested the new unitary authority should introduce a presumption that requests for 20mph limits be approved unless it is proven to be unsafe.
He said there were a number of issues with the revised policy and the feedback from residents that speeding vehicles were affecting their quality of life still did not appear to be taken into account by the authority.
Coun Mason said: “Every time we get a 20mph zone request report back from the council it says there has been no accidents or the mean speed in the area means it’s not possible.
“How much weight are they putting on to encouraging people to use other types of transport or the wellbeing of people using narrow footpaths?”
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