LOCAL councils across Gwent and Wales are set to review public feedback to the blanket 20mph speed limit. 

Between April and July, Welsh government invited people across Wales to contact their local council with feedback on how their changes to the national default speed limit had been implemented in particular streets.

Every council in Wales was asked to collect residents’ feedback with a view to assessing this against revised Welsh government guidance on setting 30mph speed limits on restricted roads. This revised guidance was published by the Welsh government in July.

In Newport, the council received over 3,500 individual feedback comments. These comments were related to 334 individual streets in the city.

It is important to note that this is not the end of the process, and that there are a number of steps which need to be followed over the next few months or so.

It is also important to note that the council cannot act on any comments we have received which relate to the policy generally (whether in support or against), and not to a particular street in Newport, as this is outside of our remit.

Next steps

The council will be reviewing all of the feedback comments  received, and assessing them against the revised guidance.

When determining whether a street should have a higher speed limit, local authorities must also be absolutely certain that any such increase will not have a negative impact on public safety.

This is something that the council will consider as they carry out their review.

A spokesperson said: "Once we have completed our review, we will then publish the results on our website. We anticipate this being sometime in the next couple of months. Please note that we will not be able to provide individual feedback to every comment we have received.

"If the revised guidance suggests that a street we have received feedback on is suitable for a 30mph speed limit, we will explain this when we publish the results of the review.

"Streets where 30mph would not be suitable under the revised guidance will remain at the default speed limit of 20mph.

"For any street where the revised guidance suggests a 30mph speed limit could be suitable, we will then produce a traffic regulation order (TRO), which is a legal process we must follow if we are to alter the speed limit."

Every TRO will be subject to a public consultation, whereby residents can show support or raise objections.

Following the TRO consultations, final decisions will be made on any changes as per the council’s normal decision-making processes.

Further updates will be provided once Newport Council have completed their review.