P-06-1340 Stop the change of speed limits to 20mph on 17th September, Correspondence – Petitioner to Committee 31.05.23
Supporting points, comments, and views to accompany petition of changes to speed limit in Wales.
Prior to presenting any other views, I would like to direct the committee to these website links.
The first link is a petition started before mine on change.org with almost 56,000 signatures (as of the time of writing this):
The second link is to a WalesOnline article discussing the matter and ending with a public poll asking, “Do you support the default speed limit changing from 30mph to 20mph in Wales?” showing 89% against the changes:
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/wales-speed-limit-change-30mph-26679967
I would like to state that I am aware the evidence taken from both links is not to the same standard as an official government poll, but I felt both cases were relevant to the ongoing discourse regarding these matters.
Some other online discussions to consider would be the comments on most of the Facebook posts regarding the changes, which are normally negative and critical of the proposed changes.
It has recently come to my attention that there has been poor feedback from several the pilot towns for the changes, which has to my knowledge been ignored by the Welsh government. The legitimacy of these claims cannot be verified without proper polling which I am unable to carry out as an individual and so I must take the evidence I am able to collect from reading the comments and thoughts of people living in these areas as being representative of the communities as a whole.
I have lived and commuted from the Rhondda valley for many years and have spoken to people from many neighbouring valleys and the consensus is clear, these changes will heavily impact these areas. The lack of job availability in the valleys has meant that many of them have become commuter communities, with very poor transport links. It takes a long time to get in and out of the valleys travelling at 30mph, let alone 20mph. To speak more personally about my area, the train line from Treherbert to Pontypridd has been closed for what is likely to be the next year, adding insult to injury, the government would like to slow people down even more getting to and from work. The government points rarely speak of the changes to the commuting times having an impact on the mental health of the commuters. The South Wales valleys are already a poorer and often forgotten area by the government and this attitude seems to be unwavering. We are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, hurting the poorest areas (like the valleys) the most and the government sees more fit spending their budget on changing the speed limit rather than moving that funding into helping struggling families and small local businesses with their bills. Putting food on the tables of starving children should be the priority over changing speed limits. It quite simply leans more to complacency than real action, they change something across the country without addressing the real problems facing its people.
The petition I wrote has gained over 20,000 signatures in the short time it has been available. This number is still not truly representative of the total number of supporters as it has had no advertising outside of sharing the link through social media channels and word of mouth. If the Welsh government were to run a proper referendum on the matter, then they would have a real understanding of the Welsh opinion and be a truly representative government. My original petition speaks on this matter.