NEW speed cameras could be used to enforce 20mph limits following calls by the councillor in charge of Oxfordshire’s highways.
Councillor Tim Bearder made the case for the use of average speed check technology in response to critics saying that lowering limits will be ineffective.
Oxfordshire County Council’s 20mph Policy and New Approach proposes to reduce limits in approximately 85 per cent of areas currently set at 30mph on the back of “huge local interest and desire” from residents.
It is hoped such a widespread rollout will make it “socially unacceptable” to break 20mph limits over time but critics say an £8million bill for new signage will be wasted money without enforcement.
The county council has recently launched a bid to government to be able to issue fixed penalty notices for moving traffic offences with Cllr Bearder stating his desire to see local authorities given further powers to install and use speed cameras.
His latest comments came in response to arguments against the county’s plan to rollout quickways for cyclists, new lanes that will see more than 500 parking spaces removed from roads in Oxford.
Tim Bearder
One of the points put forward by objectors was that vehicles will be more tempted to break speed limits on roads where they no longer have to navigate parked cars, leading Mr Bearder to address the issue of 20 mph limits again.
“People say – Conservative opposition members have said – that they are a paper tiger with no teeth and will not be enforceable,” he said.
“Like all of these things we should not avoid doing something because lots of other things are wrong or not happening. We should do the right thing and press government and the people who have the power to change these wrong things.
“That means average speed cameras. I have friends in Kiev, in a country (Ukraine) threatened by war at the moment, they have put in fixed cameras around Kiev and they have dramatically reduced speeding on the roads.
“They can do it, why can’t we?”
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