A COUNCIL has identified which roads will keep their 30mph limit when the ‘default’ maximum speed is reduced in Wales. 

On September 17 this year the speed limit on ‘restricted roads’ in Wales – those typically in built up areas and with street lighting – will drop from 30 to 20mph. 

That will mean where there is street lighting on a road and no speed limit signs, drivers will have to assume the speed limit is 20mph rather than 30mph as at present. 

But councils are able to make exceptions where 30mph limits will remain in place, and 36 such locations have been identified across Torfaen. 

Abergavenny Road (from Rifle Street to King Street) in Blaenavon is one of the 36 roads across the county where the 30mph limit will be retained. 

The council’s intention is to use temporary traffic orders, officially known as an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order, which can be implemented within a week of being advertised, to retain the 30mph limit in those locations. 

The orders can remain in place for 18 months and the council says it will gather information and feedback on how the decision to keep the 30mph limit in place is working. That will then help the council decide whether to permanently keep the 30mph limits or whether any of the 36 routes should default to the lower speed. 

New 30mph signs, to let drivers know they can travel 10mph faster than what will become the new standard limit, will be installed at the locations. The only 20mph signs will be those remaining from areas where the lower limit was previously introduced. 

The roads have been selected based as they lack any of the features the Welsh Government has identified for where there should be 20mph limits and those are: 

A road is within a 100m walk of a residential setting;  

A road is within 100m of a community centre ;

A road is within a 100m walk of a hospital;

Where the number of residential and retail premises fronting a road exceeds a defined density of 20 properties/km equivalent.

But Torfaen has said the Welsh Government criteria doesn’t take account of local factors such as traffic speeds, collision history, local attractions, residential density or where there are plans to provide walking or cycling routes. These were taken into account by Torfaen officers. 

It says the roads it has selected have a lower density of housing, an absence of schools and hospitals, and no other local factors to warrant a lower speed limit. 

Any existing 20mph speed zones in these areas are set to be revoked and 40mph buffer speed limits will be introduced where drivers are required to travel from a speed limit of 60mph in to a 30mph or 20mph area. This is intended to encourage a gradual reduction in speed and improve compliance within the built-up residential sections. 

The cost of implementing the changes is set to be in excess of £900,000 but that should be met by a Welsh Government grant. 

The approach is set to be approved by Torfaen’s Labour cabinet when it meets at Pontypool Civic Centre on Tuesday, February 14. 

Councillors are also being reminded that there will be no need for it to issue notices to bring the new 20mph limits into force, instead a blanket notice covering the whole of Wales will be issued by the Welsh Government. 

Campaigns with other councils in Gwent are also planned to help make drivers aware of the change in speed limits.