Motion launched for additional 20mph zones by Hertfordshire schools

Labour Cllr Alistair Willoughby had proposed the change at a recent meeting of the county council – pointing to evidence that it could reduce accidents, improve air quality and encourage active travel.

On Monday, his motion was considered by a meeting of the council’s environment, transport and growth cabinet panel.

According to county council data, around 138 children – aged between five and 16 – are likely to have been injured on the way to or from one of the county’s 536 schools over the past five years.

And just 96 of Hertfordshire’s 536 schools are within 20mph zones – with consultation currently ongoing that could lead to speed reductions outside a further 67. In his motion, Cllr Willoughby suggests that children are the most vulnerable road users and that collision severity increases “significantly” at speeds above 20mph.

He highlights the “many” schools on roads with speed limits in excess of 20mph, pointing to evidence that 20mph speed limits near schools “reduce accidents, improve air quality and encourage active travel”.

He wants a default 20mph speed limit on all roads directly adjacent to the main entrance of a school – with exceptions only where it would be “impractical, unsafe or counter-productive”.

Presenting the motion to the cabinet panel on Monday, Cllr Willoughby said: “I think it’s important for the safety of students that we move to 20mph outside of schools. Because effectively, obviously, being able to cross the road, being able to get into a community safely, especially for younger children, is paramount.”

However, in response to the motion, a report by council officers suggested that focusing funding on default 20mph restrictions outside schools could be “to the detriment of wider safety improvements on the network used by children travelling to school”.

It suggested that a number of school sites – on main corridors or dual carriageways – would be likely to be inappropriate for 20mph limits. And it said that most of the children injured while walking or cycling to or from school over the past five years were more than 250m from their schools.

In detail, data presented to councillors suggested that 42 of the 138 injured children – 30% – were within 250m of their schools. Nine of those were said to be “seriously” injured.

In the report, officers also highlighted the county’s Safer Routes to School programme , which supports measures such as raised crossings near schools to reduce traffic speeds and to make crossing the road safer. And they pointed to “a new approach” to the delivery of 20mph that is being trialled to cover more of the network in areas with higher housing densities and community activity.

“The issues around traffic speed and exposure to road danger at school times tend to be on streets within the school catchment area, not only by the school gates,” says the report. “Many school locations require children to cross busier roads on the journey to school than the road where the school is located, which can often be slower and in some instances have lower traffic levels.”

At the meeting, councillors heard that it was already policy to ensure that every new school and those with major housing developments had a 20mph limit zone, where possible. And the report also highlighted existing “advisory” 20mph schemes, which are operational around schools at drop-off and pick-up times only.

However, these advisory limits, says the report, are not enforceable and have limited benefit for those accessing after-school activities. During the debate, Conservative Cllr Eric Buckmaster suggested that default 20mph zones outside schools were “probably not practicable or cost-effective”.

He highlighted the use of advisory 20mph zones in his own division. Meanwhile, executive member for environment, transport and growth Cllr Paul Zukowskyj highlighted upcoming budget proposals that could see an extension to the roll-out of 20mph limits across the county.

If they were to go ahead, he suggested, that could lead to more than half of the county’s schools sitting within 20mph zones. In response, Cllr Willoughby asked that, where any proposed future scheme was refused by the community, the limit around the school should still go ahead, unless there were extreme exceptions.

After the meeting, he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he hoped this compromise position would be incorporated into the county council’s policy. Although the contents of the motion were considered by the meeting, no formal vote was taken.