Council asked to introduce 20mph speed limit on all residential roads

Councillor Ian Duckworth supports a call for 20mph limit on residential roads

Councillors were asked at the Rochdale Township Committee meeting on Wednesday (10 September) if they would be willing to look at implementing a blanket 20mph speed limit on all residential roads in the borough.

The question was asked by Helen Andrews who wants to see the limit introduced to stop road traffic accidents occurring.

Councillor Ian Duckworth supported Helen in her quest and said: “I do think we should look into 20mph limits within all residential roads. There is no need for cars to be speeding in streets where children could be playing.”

Councillor Terry Linden added: “If it can be done and it is reasonable then I think it is something we should look at in the future.”

Councillor Cecile Biant also agreed with Helen but did address the cost element behind such a scheme. She said: “It is a good idea and it has been done in other towns but we do have to look at the cost for something like this. We would have to have speed limit signs, traffic regulation orders and a consultation and that would be huge.”

Councillor Richard Farnell agreed with Councillor Biant and added: “It would cost millions to change the roads in terms of traffic regulation orders and signage and without that you can’t do it. That is not a reason to not do it but in reality we don’t have the resources to do it.”

Helen was quick to respond with information that shows that if you lower the speed limit to 20mph, drivers are likely to break the speed but would not travel more than 30mph, but if a road has a 30mph limit, drivers are likely to break that speed and continue to break it until at least 40mph or more.

Councillor Shefali Ahmed said: “If you do one large traffic regulation order then that would cost less than doing each individual street.”

Councillor Andrew Neilson agreed with Councillor Ahmed and added: “If we did a large traffic order then it would cost next to nothing and not millions.”

Mark Widdup, Director of Economy and Environment at Rochdale Council said: “Rochdale doesn’t have a boroughwide policy in regards to 20mph speed limits but we have worked to target areas such as schools in which these limits are needed. If this is something that councillors wanted me to look at then I can bring a report to township but we are committed to reducing speed and have done this at schools and requested roads.”

Mr Widdup was keen to come back on the costing issue adding: “This would not be next to nothing; this would be a significant amount. This would not be universally popular and we would have to consult with the 200,000 people in the borough to see if this would affect them and their residential street.”

It was agreed that a report on costing for the township would be presented to councillors in the near future.