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On 17 September 2023, all Restricted Roads will change to 20mph.
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Restricted Roads are roads that have street lights and which are currently subject to a speed limit 30mph. Most of the roads in our city, towns and villages are Restricted Roads.
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The principle behind the new legislation is that 20mph will become the default speed limit in our city, towns and villages. The Welsh Government have provided criteria for making some roads exceptions to the default speed limit, please see Question 5 (below).
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Welsh Government has published 'exceptions criteria' which detail how highway authorities can set exceptions to 20mph speed limits on restricted roads in Wales. Can the Council make my road an exception?
The Welsh Government’s guidance is that if a road does not meet one of the criteria below, then it could be considered as a possible exception on the basis that it is very unlikely that pedestrians would cross that road. In practice, nearly all of the roads within Denbighshire’s city, towns and villages meet the last of the four criteria below (criteria number 4).
Welsh Government criteria:
- Is the road within 100 metres of a school or other educational establishment?
- Is the road within 100 metres of a community centre?
- Is the road within 100 metres of a hospital?
- Do residential or retail properties front the road, and exceed 20 properties per kilometre of road (i.e. 5 or more properties every 250 metres of road)?
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We are currently making a legal document called a Traffic Regulation Order which will specify that 30mph is the speed limit on all roads which are proposed to be exceptions. This Traffic Regulation Order will come into force when the default 20mph speed limit comes into force. This means that those roads being made exceptions will remain as 30mph.
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We currently have six roads which are proposed to be exceptions.
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Local councils cannot legally disregard criteria when applying speed restrictions to local roads. All speed limits are assessed impartially based on specified national criteria.
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Yes, we have appointed contractors to undertake this signage work in readiness for the 17 September 2023.
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No, and such signs would actually be illegal. As per the highway code, unless there are signs to the contrary, the presence of street lights tells road users that the default speed limit applies, which will be 20mph as of the 17 September 2023.
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We have speed humps along my road to keep traffic speeds down, will these be removed when 20mph is introduced?
Road humps are generally a very effective way of reducing vehicle speeds and so there are no plans to remove them because of the default 20 mph limit. Road humps will normally have been introduced because there had been a number of road traffic accidents that occurred where excessive speed was a factor. Nonetheless, we will monitor the effectiveness of the new default 20 mph limit to assess its effectiveness on roads that do not have traffic calming.
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All costs associated with the implementation of 20mph across Wales will be met by Welsh Government by means of a grant to local councils.
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Related pages
20mph speed limits