A leaked email from a senior police officer to other blue light service chiefs has suggested emergency response times would be impacted by plans to introduce a default 20 mph speed limit across Wales.
The new speed limits will come into place next month, but a leaked email from the assistant chief constable for South Wales Police, Mark Travis, says it “will have an impact on how we within the four Welsh police forces and you as emergency services, carry out your core business.”
In the email, which has been leaked to the Welsh Conservatives, Mr. Travis says, “We recognise that this will influence the speeds at which our responders are able to travel to emergency calls and may have an impact on how we respond or deploy staff to incidents.”
‘I Fear That Lives Will Actually Be Lost’
The Welsh shadow minister for transport, Natasha Asghar MS, said in a press release: “Labour claim that this policy is to save lives. But with the Police admitting it will impact response times and no work carried out to measure the affect blue light services – contrary to saving lives, I fear that lives will actually be lost.”Ms. Asghar, who represents South Wales East in the Senedd, said, “This is clearly a very ill-thought-out policy by Labour and what we all want to know is why the Labour Government is hiding the truth from the people of Wales of what the emergency services said of their unreal plans which will cost the Welsh economy £4.5 billion.”
“The Labour minister needs to urgently put a hold on the roll out of the default 20mph, delaying it until all these questions are answered. I hope that the Labour government will then decide that this ludicrous plan has hit a red light indefinitely,” she added.
Patel’s trial heard that although emergency responders were exempt from speed limits they still had a duty to drive safely and with regard to pedestrians and other road users.
From Sept. 17 all roads in Wales which currently have 30 mph speed limit will be changed to 20 mph.
Currently, just 2.5 percent of Welsh roads have a speed limit of 20 mph, but from next month this is expected to increase to approximately 35 percent.
Resident: 20 MPH Has Led to More ‘Tailgating’
Martin Bailey, from Buckley, told ITV News: “We’ve seen overtakes happen in areas where they didn’t need to previously, we’ve seen tailgating, it actually makes it harder for people to cross the road in certain places. People are not paying as much attention, they don’t believe they need to have as much care, and consequently they’re a lot closer to other cars.”The controversial speed limit changes in Wales will come into force two weeks after the extension of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) extension comes into force across Greater London.
The decision by the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to go ahead with the extension has been blamed for Labour failing to win the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election last month.
It comes as the Conservatives across the UK seek to portray themselves as the “party of the motorist” in contrast with Labour.
After the Uxbridge by-election result, the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called on Mr. Khan to “reflect” on the ULEZ extension but he has not commented on the Labour government in Cardiff’s decision to extend 20 mph limits across large parts of Wales.
A Welsh government spokesman said, “Changing the default speed limit on restricted roads in Wales to 20 mph does not impact on the legislation that allows police, fire, and ambulance services to exceed speed limits in the course of emergency response duties.”
