20mph near schools. Labour scupper progress.

Posted By: William Hobhouse
Date Posted: 15/10/2009

Who would disagree that vehicle speed should be reduced outside schools? No-one. So if you want to do something about it, you could pass a motion as follows:

‘We call upon the council to introduce as a priority a mandatory and enforceable 20 miles an hour speed limit on roads outside all schools in the borough.’

Not an ideal motion as it is the police that enforce (and they won’t), nor does it deal with the problem of schools on main strategic roads – what about Springhill High School on Kingsway? Lastly, as Cllr Williams from Alkrington correctly pointed out, there is a 20mph speed limit across all Alkrington. It works, because the whole of the area is full of speed humps. Without speed humps and no police enforcement, 20mph signs aren’t worth the paper they're written on.

The solution to child safety is therefore a bit more complex, requires joined up thinking and above all requires local input. As it happens, the Highways capital budget is split into the strategic roads and the local roads. Everything to do with local roads is DEVOLVED TO TOWNSHIPS - £1 million per year.

Now to the Conservative addition to the motion, carried by one vote at the Council meeting:

‘and that the funding for this be taken from the central pot rather than from Township Devolved Budgets’

This means that the requirement to do something about child safety is now removed from local communities and goes to the centre. Maybe the centre feels it has better things to do with its money, like improving road safety in places where there are regular accidents, and reducing fatalities at blackspots.

Just to give you one example. St Michael’s C of E Primary School, just on the border of Heywood and my ward of Bamford is on the main road to Bury. At the Bamford Area Forum, residents have asked – and I agree with them – that the speed limit is reduced from the current 40mph. I was all ready to support this as one of Bamford’s priorities for next year to be funded by the Area Forum itself, along with the Highways capital fund. As a result of this Council motion, Councillor Lambert in Heywood and Councillor Gartside in Bamford now say that the money for this comes from the centre. Dream on. This is incompetent local government. What a shame.
I’m quite happy to have abstained on the Council motion. Personally I’m not into posturing for a quick Rochdale Online headline.