Agenda item

Report by the Chair of the Review Board.

24.1     Councillor Hollidge, Chair of the Review Board, introduced the report. He thanked the Review Board members, officers and Sussex Police for their work on the review. The Committee decided to undertake the review after it was invited to look at the topic of local speed limit policy following a Notice of Motion in June 2023 and as a result of the number of road safety requests received by councillors. The review analysed the purpose of the local speed limit policy; whether it aligned with the Department for Transport guidance; the approach taken by other local authorities; did it correspond with national and local evidence and; how the Council communicates the policy to the public. The Board found that by and large ESCC’s polices were robust and in line with the DfT guidance. Recommendation 1 of the report recommends that the policy is reviewed if the guidance changes.

24.2     It was agreed that the review would be a two part review as it was not possible to complete examining everything the Review Board members wanted to look at within the timescales for completing the review. Councillor Hollidge commented that it will be important to consider the influence of the Local Transport Plan 4 (LTP4) which was being developed whilst the review was taking place and other developments such as the launch of the Living Streets Pedestrian Pound report, Active Travel and the impact of lower speed limits on health. Councillor Hollidge endorsed the report and recommended the report of the Review Board to the Committee for agreement and to present the report to Cabinet and Full Council for consideration.

24.3     The Committee discussed and commented on the report of the Review Board and a summary of the discussion is given below.

24.4     Councillor Taylor spoke on behalf of Councillor Hilton who was unable to be present at the meeting. She outlined that Councillor Hilton did not wish for her name to be on the report unless it can be made really clear that there is more work that remains to be done on the policy, especially 20mph speed limits. Unfortunately, she was not able to be present at all the review meetings and felt that her request for more detailed evidence on 20mph limits was not taken into account.

24.5     Councillor Murphy spoke on behalf Councillor Wright who had left the meeting. Councillor Wright was not entirely happy with the report and considered that the review should have received more direct evidence from other local authorities, including Oxfordshire, on the approach to local speed limits and 20mph limits.

24.6     Councillor Murphy commented that given the time constraints it was a good piece of cross-party work which looked at a range of evidence. He was quite pleased with the report and the way in which the Board had worked together and was happy to endorse the report.

24.7     Councillor Stephen Shing thanked the Review Board and officers for the report and commented that he thought the report was good. However, he considered that the report and its recommendations would not help the public get any more reduced speed limits or traffic management, and therefore did not support the report.

24.8     Councillor Redstone commented that much of the issue around local speed limits is about communication and public expectations, with people wanting lower speed limits where they live. He was particularly keen about having better tools on the website such as a ‘wizard’ to help residents and Parish Councils understand how speed limit policy is set and its benefits.

24.9     Councillor Kirby-Green commented that she was not overly happy with the report and noted the concerns raised by Councillor Taylor (on behalf of Councillor Hilton) and Councillor Wright. There is a lot more work that needs to be done on this topic, and this report is a good starting point. She thanked Councillor Hollidge for his chairing of the review, during which there was a robust discussion, and some strong views expressed.

24.10   The Director of CET thanked the Board for their engagement with the work on this topic. Setting speed limits and views on road safety are quite challenging and often draw a selection of views. He noted that this is the first part of the review and there will be a further opportunity for the Committee to undertake work on this topic.

24.11   Councillor Beaver commented that he understood there were disagreements from a number of Board members regarding the report, but the Review Board membership was a statement of fact and he did not support removing Board member’s names from the report. However, he would be happy to discuss adding a note to reflect there were some disagreements about the report from Councillor Hilton and Councillor Wright. Councillor Taylor requested that any such note makes it clear that there will be more work done on this topic and particularly what this will include, so it is clear that the work has not finished. Councillor Beaver responded that the note could make it clear that this is part 1 of the work on this topic, and any future work will be subject to the agreement of the Committee at that time.

24.12   The Chair asked the Committee to indicate by a show of hands if they were happy to agree the recommendation set out in the report, namely to agree report of the Review Board, and make recommendations to Cabinet for comment, and County Council for approval.

24.13   The Committee RESOLVED by a majority (5 For, 1 Against, and 1 Abstention) to agree the report of the Review Board, and make recommendations to Cabinet for comment, and County Council for approval.