Twenty's plenty, says Gwent AM John Griffiths

Newport East’s John Griffiths has previously called for the policy to be adopted on roads across Wales, and led a debate on the idea in the Assembly this week.

He said: “The benefits are many. It makes roads safer to protect life and limb and allows local communities to reclaim their streets.

“That would facilitate play, cycling and walking, and greater community cohesion and interaction.

“This, I believe, is an idea and policy whose time has come.”

Mr Griffiths said the success of the policy in cities such as Bristol, Manchester and Edinburgh, as well as parts of London, and countries in Scandinavia where the limit is already standard in many areas showed it should be adopted in Wales.

He continued: “In the past year, Wales had seen over 3,000 car traffic accidents that resulted in injury or death.

“In my home city of Newport, there have been more than 140 accidents with three tragically ending in fatalities.

“Further action is required to reduce this toll on our families and communities.

“Driving through social housing estates with cars parked along both sides of the road and children playing, drivers have very little time to react if a child runs out into the road from between parked vehicles.”

He said a report by Public Health Wales had shown reducing limits on all 30mph roads to 20mph would save up to ten lives, stop as many as 2,000 injuries and save the economy up to £84 million.

And, saying “our residential streets have become hostile environments for children and teenagers”, he added cutting limits would allow more young people to play on the streets near their homes unsupervised.

Replying, economy and transport secretary Ken Skates said: “This topic merits very serious consideration, and I'm a strong supporter of 20 is plenty.

“We'll look at all the available evidence and we'll discuss it with our partners, before the proposals for consultation with the wider public are published.”