26 September 2022
Surveys have shown that Macclesfield residents, like people up and down the country, are strongly in favour of 20mph speed limits in our residential and shopping streets.
About half the population of the country live in places where most urban and village residential and shopping streets are or will soon be subject to 20mph speed limits. In Wales, Manchester, Warrington, most of London and large areas of Cheshire West and Chester – to name a few – residents are enjoying the benefits of reduced speeds, more active travel, less pollution, fewer and less serious accidents, less fear of traffic by vulnerable road users, and a better community spirit. Lower speed limits benefit our physical and mental health, and reduce the strain on the NHS – and contribute to less car-use and lower carbon emissions.
But not in Cheshire East. Why not? In 2020 the council voted to “kick it into the long grass”, referring plans proposed by the campaign group “20splenty for Cheshire East” to the Highways and Transport department reviewing the council’s Speed Management Strategy. This group produced a draft document that would have made it almost impossible to get significant areas of 20mph limits in the borough; and it was duly inundated by objections in the following consultation.
The new Speed Management Strategy has failed to respond to those objections and will still make it difficult for residents to get the benefits of lower speeds where they shop and work. The strategy must be amended to make it clear that the residents of the borough want a policy of default 20mph limits on all residential and shopping streets, in towns and villages. Exceptions will of course sometimes be appropriate and made on a case-by-case basis, but 20mph in our towns and villages must become the norm.
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