Last night (01/02/2024) in the Economy & Place Overview and Scrutiny committee Cllr Louise Emery introduced a petition, signed by over 1,200 Conwy residents, calling for a public consultations on the Welsh Government imposed speed limit. The meeting saw a number of petitioners brave the bitter weather and show their support from the public gallery with posters, branded T-shirts and banners.
Introducing the petition, Cllr Emery highlighted that the Welsh Government had imposed this speed limit on the County of Conwy, lowering the speed limit on many link roads which connect communities across the County and which many businesses rely upon. Given this, fellow committee members were urged to back the petitions request for a public consultation on the roads that can be exempted back up to 30mph.
Cllr Goronwy Edwards, Cabinet Members for Environment, Roads & Facilities (ERF) provided a statement asking for residents to email the Traffic Team with suggested roads for alterations instead of undertaking a full consultation. This was echoed by two of his fellow Independent Cabinet Members and the acting leader of Welsh Labour Group.
Cllr Emery correctly labelled this as a ‘cop out’ by the Local Authority. Supported by Cllr Sam Cotton & Thomas Montgomery who questioned the effectiveness of the generic email address provided by the Cabinet Member as a way of collating which roads the public most strongly support being exempted from the 20mph restriction.
The calls for a proper consultation were also supported by fellow Welsh Conservative councillors Harry Saville and Gareth Jones.
Despite pushback from several other political parties during the debate the motion was passed with cross party support.
Cllr Emery will now meet with Cllr Edwards to discuss the drafting of the consultation before presenting the recommendations to Cabinet at a future date.
Commenting after the debate Cllr Emery said:
"This is a great victory for democracy in Conwy. Our residents have come out to make their feelings known and it is important that we act on that. Where the Welsh Government has ignored public consultations, the feedback from 20 mph trails and the views of elected members in the Senedd and elsewhere, we have taken another step forward in correcting the disastrous parts of this policy to actually deliver safer roads for our communities here in Conwy”
"I would like to take this chance to thank Debbie Robbins, Tina Lee and all those who have signed this petition for all their hard work!"
