Issued by City of York Council
City of York Council is inviting residents to feedback their comments on the plans to implement a 20mph limit policy in the West of York, from Friday 26 April.
Following the announcement of the scheme in March, supported by Headteachers in the West of York School’s Partnership and one of the UK’s leading health & well being mutuals, benenden health, residents will have the opportunity to have their say.
The scheme builds on the policy to introduce 20mph speed limits in residential areas to help promote considerate driving, make walking and cycling more attractive and raise confidence in the safety of local neighbourhoods.
As part of a phased citywide rollout Acomb, Holgate, Dringhouses & Woodthorpe and Westfield will become the next Wards to be considered for lower speed limits.
Councillor Dave Merrett, Cabinet Member for Transport, Planning and Sustainability, said: “With significant reductions of up to 3mph (average speeds) in parts of Fishergate ward as a direct result of introducing a lower speed limit, this is proving to be a cost effective and successful scheme and it is great that residents have the chance to see the plans and offer their views on the changes.
“The introduction of lower speed limits reduces speeds, giving drivers more time to react to the presence of other road users, and reducing the likelihood and scale of any potential remaining accidents. We are seeking to increase driver and safety awareness on our roads as part of the roll out. We as a city are committed to making York’s roads safer; this has been seen in the new I-Pledge scheme which many have signed up to.”
Proposals of how 20mph might best be implemented in the West of York as well as Bishopthorpe, Copmanthorpe and Bishophill, will be available at www.york20mph.org. Plans will also be available to view at York Explore Library Learning Centre, local libraries in the West of York, and Energise sports centre.
Council staff will be on hand to speak to residents at Morrisons on Acomb Front Street on Friday, April 26. Following this event a letter will be sent to all households on the affected streets with a local plan of proposals and an explanation on how to make formal representations to the council.
Following consideration of resident’s representations their comments will be fed back to a decision session for consideration before the introduction of the proposed 20mph limits. The planned introduction is set to be in place in spring/summer 2013 and will ensure that the majority of residential roads and neighbourhoods will have a lower speed limit to help reduce speeds where people live.
The signed-only 20mph speed limits are designed to be largely self-enforcing and aim to support, strengthen and work alongside the many existing traffic calmed 20mph zones that are already in place in many residential streets and around schools in the West of the city.
For further information visit www.york20mph.org, follow @york20mph on Twitter, or like York20mph on Facebook.