Abuse forces Borders 20mph speed limit consultation offline

More than 90 towns and villages now have 20mph speed limits

The first Scottish council to introduce 20mph zones across all settlements has banned emails on its final speed limit consultation because of previous abuse.

Angry email responses to Scottish Borders Council (SBC) during earlier reviews have led to the postal letter only approach.

The statutory consultation is open until the end of September.

John Greenwell, SBC's spokesman for transport, said: "There were a lot of emails that were unacceptable."

SBC used £1.2m from the Scottish government's Spaces for People fund to introduce lower speed limits to 97 settlements in October 2020..

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The move, which was supported by Transport Scotland and Sustrans, was aimed at reducing speeds and encouraging more walking and cycling.

An initial consultation the following year led to hundreds of objections as well as almost as many emails of support being received, leading to a handful of roads reverting to either 30mph or 40mph.

Among the responses, though, were many personal attacks on officers involved in the project.

All responses to the consultation will have to be posted in

Mr Greenwell, a councillor for Mid Berwickshire, added: "I understand people have a bit of a grievance with having to write and post a response this time, but we do not want a repeat of what happened the last time.

"Despite the decision to only have postal responses, I would urge everyone to take part and have their say.

"There are such varied views on this, it is important that everyone is heard."

The findings of the two-year trial in the Borders, as well as the final consultation, are being used to shape Transport Scotland's guidance for a roll-out across all of Scotland by 2025.

Since the 20mph zones were introduced almost two years ago, a study has found that speed have reduced in towns and villages by between 3mph and 6mph.