Agenda item

The report provides a review of the experimental 20 miles per hour speed limit that is currently in place in the village of Bishopthorpe. The review includes residents’ views provided during the consultation period and speed survey data, undertaken before and during the experimental period.

The report analyses the different options available to the Executive Member to make a decision on permanent speed limits for Bishopthorpe.

Resolved:   To approve Option 5 – to make a reduced area of the experimental Order permanent and allocate funding to undertake further work to reduce speeds on the approaches to the village.

Reason:     This option introduces the reduced area as a permanent 20mph area whilst committing the Council to undertake further work to assess existing speeds, street character and measures, which supports the implementation of the wider ETRO area as a 20mph area with good levels of compliance.

Reallocated funding from the Mayoral Combined Authority budget will be required; the Executive Member noted that £400k funding was available.

The report was presented by the Highway Regulation Manager. He summarised that this was a review of the existing experiment order in place across the village of Bishopthorpe.

He advised that this provided a review of the experimental 20 miles per hour (mph) speed limit currently, including residents’ views provided during a consultation period and speed survey data, undertaken before and during the experimental period.

He detailed the different options available regarding permanent speed limits for Bishopthorpe and recommended Option 3 - making the 20mph signed only speed limit permanent for most of the village, with the exception of three areas where compliance with the “signed only” limit had been poor. He acknowledged the points raised in public participation.

The Executive Member thanked officers, acknowledging the amount of work that had gone into recording speeds at various times, consulting residents and considering the different point of view.

She noted that across the City of York, an average of around five people every year lost their lives, and around 35 people suffered life-changing injuries, where speed was a significant contributing factor.

She stated that the impact of this, physically, emotionally and financially on those affected, emergency services and the city was unacceptable. She cited statistics from Wales and London evidencing that reducing speed has led to a reduction in casualties and agreed that doing so in York ensured a safer place for people to walk, cycle, and live. She noted that the transport strategy committed to “Vision Zero”; meaning eliminating all road deaths and taking action to reduce vehicle speeds constituted part of this strategy.

The Executive Member stated that the data from Bishopthorpe had indicated an overall a drop in speed since the 20mph speed limit was introduced, and there was a strong degree of support from the residents to retain that 20mph limit. She recognised that the compliance was not as good as it might be on three of the approach roads (with a top speed on Sim Balk Lane of over 90mph in September 2024 and 50mph on Church Lane, both in populated residential areas). She said that it was clear the 20mph signed only limit was working well in the bulk of the village but needed additional measures on these three approach roads to bring the speeds down.

She acknowledged the speaker from York Civic Trust who had noted that the local authority “decides and provides” rather than “predicts and provides” concluding that the council’s role was to create safe and healthy environments where people live, and she consequently intended to proceed with Option 5. She noted that there was £400,000 of Mayoral funding for speed reduction to implement additional measures to slow vehicles down.

She stated that she would also like to include consideration of the 30mph speed limit as far out as Middlethorpe, or speed reduction measures appropriate to enable people to walk and cycle along that road and cross the road to get to the bus stop.

She also noted that many other communities were requesting reduced speeds and safer roads, acknowledging the speaker from Poppleton. She confirmed that when Cllr Kilbane originally approved this trial at Bishopthorpe, he had made a commitment to look at Dunnington next as they were the next village that had asked for it, and she hoped to move forward on that now and establish a similar 20mph zone for Dunnington.

The Executive member thereby

Resolved:   To approve Option 5 – to make a reduced area of the experimental Order permanent and allocate funding to undertake further work to reduce speeds on the approaches to the village.

Reason:     This option introduces the reduced area as a permanent 20mph area whilst committing the Council to undertake further work to assess existing speeds, street character and measures, which supports the implementation of the wider ETRO area as a 20mph area with good levels of compliance.

Reallocated funding from the Mayoral Combined Authority budget will be required; the Executive Member noted that £400k funding was available.