Wirral Council approves 20mph speed limit on 1,000 more roads

The 20mph limit has already been introduced on some roads in the borough

Plans to reduce speed limits to 20mph on almost 1,000 more roads have been approved by a council.

The move by Wirral Council is aimed at cutting the number of people killed or seriously injured in the borough.

Councillor Steve Foulkes said the the policy was "about co-existence of all our road users".

Opposing councillors called for a more targeted approach around schools, accident blackspots and areas where people had campaigned for it.

The new speed limits were given approval by a significant majority of councillors at a meeting of the authority's environment and transport committee meeting on Monday, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The latest step on 949 roads follows a previous rollout on 1,700 roads in the first stage of the scheme.

Two more stages are expected in 2024.

'Devastated'

Despite only 7% of 2,226 responses in a recent consultation endorsing the move, Labour, Green, and Liberal Democrat representatives on the committee supported the change, arguing it would help save lives .

The committee's three Conservative councillors voted against the policy, pointing to the strong opposition in the responses, and called for a more targeted approach.

A committee council report said pausing or not implementing any of phase two "would be contrary to typical practice" and schemes should be evaluated over six years.

The council, which is under no overall control and led by a Labour minority administration, will look at some main roads being included in this phase as well as cul-de-sacs, which could potentially change back to 30mph.

It also said there was a risk the authority may have to reallocate or give grant money back to the Liverpool City Region if it did not move ahead.

Mr Foulkes, speaking in favour of the policy, said his Claughton ward "would be devastated" if the rollout did not progress, adding: "This policy is about co-existence of all our road users."

Committee chairwoman Liz Grey said the change was needed as children play in the street "in all our urban areas [and] don't just hang out outside schools".

Conservative councillor Max Booth, who voted against the move, pointed to the public feedback responses and said that "supporting the idea that retaining the trust in our democratic process" for future initiatives was "also of the upmost importance".