THE change to 20mph roads in Wales will cost the taxpayer more than £600,000 in Newport alone, just to cover the cost of new road signs.

Information made public via a Freedom of Information Act request revealed the significant sums of public money being spent on changing road signs in the city.

The Welsh Government has handed the city council £272,000 this year and has already allocated another £340,000 to Newport for next year.

For road safety reasons, default speed limits across Wales will change from 30mph to 20mph on September 17, and councils have already started putting up new signs ahead of the big day.

It is up to councils to find suppliers for their own signs, but figures show the Welsh Government has handed out £21 million nationwide to cover the costs.

Conservative councillor Matthew Evans, the city council's leader of the opposition, said the Labour-run Welsh Government "must have money to burn".

"It's an obscene amount when they are always claiming poverty," he said, adding that the amounts the city council was expecting to save through other cuts was exceeded by the roughly £600,000 it had received for new speed limit signs.

Among these is the move to three-weekly bin collections, which the council has predicted will save it £320,000. It has also said the move is part of efforts to meet the Welsh Government's recycling targets by the 2024-25 financial year - and it could be fined around £500,000 if this is not met.

Other savings the authority is making include £150,000 by reducing opening times in customers services.

Cllr Evans added: "I am sure Newport residents would prefer to see their money spent on improving public services."

Newport City Council declined to respond to Cllr Evans' comments.

As the Argus reported previously, councils have the powers to retain 30mph speed limits on roads where it is safe to do so, but in Newport nearly every so-called "restricted road" - roads typically in residential areas with street lights - will be changed to 20mph in September.

The Welsh Government believes the new rules will bring “a number of benefits including a reduction in road collisions and serious injury, more people walking and cycling and improvements to health and wellbeing”.

But trials in Gwent achieved mixed success last year, when research found only around one in five drivers obeyed 20mph speed limits in parts of Abergavenny and Severnside.

The Welsh Government was contacted for comment.