20mph Speed Limits
Ceredigion County Council has undertaken a comprehensive review of the 20mph speed limits across the county, following a request from the Welsh Government to gather residents' feedback about the new limits that were introduced in September 2023. The Welsh Government provided new '30mph exception' guidance in 2024 to assist Local Authorities with this exercise.
During this ‘listening phase’ from May to September 2024 Ceredigion County Council received 62 individual comments, of these 23 expressed support for the new 20mph limits, 20 expressed desires for a change to the national policy, 16 objected to existing 20mph limits on county roads, eight referred directly to Welsh Government-managed Trunk Road locations, over which the Council has no jurisdiction, and 3 were deemed out of scope.
Correspondence was also received indirectly from 20 Town and Community Councils, some expressing support for 20mph limits. However, many of the requests included in this correspondence were simply outside the scope of this review.
Comments on specific speed limits on County Roads were related to the 34 locations listed below, and all of these locations were considered during the formal review:
- Aberaeron A482
- Aberystwyth A4120 north
- Aberystwyth A4120 south
- Aberystwyth B4572 Clarach Road
- Aberystwyth Park Avenue
- Aberystwyth Primrose Hill
- Aberystwyth Waunfawr
- Bethania B4577
- Betws Ifan
- Beulah C1162
- Borth B4353 & B4572
- Bronant A485
- Cardigan C1001 Ferwig Road
- Cenarth A484
- Coedybryn B4334
- Cribyn B4337
- Cwmystwyth C1118
- Felinfach A482 by the new school
- Llandre B4353
- Llandyfriog A475
- Llanfarian A485
- Llangorwen B4572 & C1049
- Llangwyryfon B4576 and side roads
- Llanilar A485 & B4575
- Llechryd A484
- Llechryd Adam Street
- Lledrod A485 & C1089
- Penrhyncoch all roads
- Penuwch B4577 & C1104
- Pontgarreg C1012
- Pontrhydfendigaid all roads
- Rhydlewis B4334
- Rhydowen B4459
- Ynyslas B4353 & C1172
All of the locations included in the review have been reassessed against the Welsh Government’s 30mph exceptions guidance, which includes the following key criteria for 20mph limits:
- Educational settings (within 100m): Schools; Pre-school groups; Further education; Higher education;
- Community facility (within 100m): community halls; playing fields, sports facilities and children’s playgrounds;
- Medical facility (within 100m): Hospitals, GP/doctors surgeries, day care centres;
- Residential and/or retail premises immediately (consider distance from the road, visibility, road geometry, other accesses) fronting the road exceeds 20 per km on both sides of the road.
If any of the above criteria are met, a 20mph limit is appropriate.
Supplementary criteria set out:
- That if there is insufficient width of footway and cycle facilities so that pedestrians and cyclists do not stray into the carriageway, then a 30mph limit is not appropriate.
- Frequent changes in speed limit should be avoided, to avoid driver confusion.
The minimum length of a speed limit should generally be not less than 600 metres to avoid too many changes along the route. This can be reduced to 400 metres for lower speed limits, or even 300 metres on roads with a purely local access function. Anything shorter is not recommended.’ These minimum lengths do not apply to buffer limits.
The outcome of the review work is that there will be no proposed changes to any existing speed limits.
The following is a general summary of requests received within correspondence, along with reasons why they cannot be granted:
- Requests for part time speed limits by schools, hospitals etc would grant insufficient decreases in journey times at those locations (usually only a few seconds) to justify the expense of installing and maintaining electronic signage, which can be in the region of up to £80,000 initially.
- Requests for shorter sections of road to be returned to 30mph also would not lead to significant decreases in journey times and could also not be granted due to the need to avoid multiple changes of speed limits over short distances, as included in the Welsh Government guidance.
- Requests for the alteration of speed limits mentioning poor respect for 20mph limits and poor driver behaviour should have been directed to the police, the Council has no legal powers relating to such issues.
- Requests that were outside the scope of the scheme, for instance relating to roads that did not have 30mph limits prior to the national change, or new speed limits for roads that lack sufficient residential or other development as set out in the Welsh Government guidance (i.e. a minimum of 20 residences and/or retail premises immediately fronting the road over 1km).
- Requests to return the speed limit to 30mph on sections of road featuring a minimum of 20 residences and/or retail premises immediately fronting the road over 1km, and/or lacking footways, and which therefore meet the Welsh Government criteria for 20mph limits.
- Requests to return sections of road with 20mph limits to 30mph on the grounds that correspondents report few or no pedestrian/cyclist movements. The intention of the Welsh Government is to encourage active travel, including at those locations where there may seem to be little at present.
Those correspondents objecting to 20mph speed limits should note that collision data recently released by the police and the Welsh Government (e.g. at https://www.gov.wales/safest-summer-welsh-roads-new-statistics-show and https://www.gov.wales/police-recorded-road-collisions-july-september-2024-provisional-html) suggests that the national change to the speed limit does seem to be reducing casualties on roads across Wales.
The Welsh Government has informed local authorities that it intends publishing further new guidance for setting local speed limits and there is an expectation that local highway authorities will review speed limits on roads that were outside the scope of national change to speed limits in 2023. Any changes to speed limits on roads that fall under the jurisdiction of Ceredigion County Council will be subject to the availability of resources to undertake a review and then to implement any changes arising from this review.