THERE will be no blanket 20mph speed limit in Newton Abbot unless residents agree, town councillors have been promised.

The pledge was made by Devon highways officials at a special meeting last Wednesday called by the Mayor, Cllr Richard Jenks.

Earlier this year members of Newton Abbot Town Council agreed to support, in principle, the idea of a trial 20mph limit in residential areas.

Then last month it emerged that Devon County Council’s Traffic Speeds Task Group had expanded the proposals to include A and B roads.

Concerned the change had been made without sufficient consultation and could prevent on-call firefighters reaching the station within the required five minutes, Mayor Cllr Jenks invited officials to talk with town councillors.

During Wednesday’s virtual meeting, Devon’s Traffic Management Team Manager Chris Rook attempted to assure members that no trial would go ahead without public support established through extensive consultation.

‘A scheme will succeed or fail on the level of involvement with the community,’ he said.

‘We do not want to give the people of Newton Abbot what they don’t want.

‘This will be a shared vision.’

Mr Rook said the mix of roads in the scheme, if it went ahead, would be determined by residents.

‘We will come at this without any presumption,’ he said.

The meeting heard from traffic expert Simon Garner who has been advising County Hall on the proposed trial.

He told members that speed reduction programmes which relied on enforcement measures such as traffic cameras and fines did not work.

He cited Edinburgh as a successful example of attempts to lower speeds with residents feeling safer and happier to use the roads, resulting in a 20 per cent increase in cycling.

‘Let’s try and reach out and get the maximum road safety benefits,’ he said.

Further talks between the town council and County Hall will be held with the aim of staging a public consultation next year.

The cost of the scheme has not been revealed but Mr Rook said it would be ‘agreed from existing budgets’.

County member Cllr Jackie Hook said the trial, if agreed, could begin in 2022.

A map of traffic collisions in the town is available at www.devontraffweb.co.uk/public/collisionmap.html.

Trial could be rolled out

Teignbridge District Council’s executive earlier this month unanimously expressed its preliminary support for the trial and said that it would hopefully both provide a safe environment for all road users, as well as tackling the congestion that the town suffers from.

The intended implementation timeline is for traffic data collection and surveys, and initial consultation and promotion to take place in the first half of 2021, with formal advertising of the trial taking place late 2021.

But Devon County Council would make the final decision ahead of the speed limit changes being trialled.

The trial would follow the success of limited speed limits imposed in Portsmouth, Oxford, Bristol, Warrington, Islington, and Hackney, and if the Newton Abbot trial is a success, then it could be rolled out to other parts of Devon.

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