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Council launches second area to trial 20mph traffic zone

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A second large area in the north of the borough could get a 20mph zone on its residential roads, as the council begins a consultation tomorrow asking residents if they agree to extending the speed restrictions into South Norwood, Selhurst and Addiscombe.

According to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, introducing 20mph limits reduces vehicle speeds and cuts the risk of being injured in an accident. Other London councils, including Islington and Southwark, have already introduced borough-wide 20mph schemes.

“Croydon had more than 1,000 road casualties in 2014, which underlines why our 20mph plans are important and will make our borough safer for everyone if enough people come forward to support them,” said Councillor Kathy Bee, cabinet member for transport and the environment.

Bee, or at least a small part of her (the video has been shot with only the councillor’s head visible), appears in a comically poor council video which unwittingly illustrates how busy some of the borough’s streets have become with fast-travelling traffic. As the councillor tries to deliver her unlearned and under-rehearsed 40-second script (note the frequent distracted glances to her cue cards), she has to struggle for her message to be picked up by the microphone over the noise of the passing vehicles.

This is the map, provided by the council, of the area of the second 20mph consultation

The borough’s first 20mph limit area is being implemented across parts of Selhurst, Bensham Manor, Thornton Heath and Upper Norwood after a consultation last year which was bitterly disputed by a one-man-band car campaigner who lives in Coulsdon.

The council is to begin delivering thousands of leaflets and publish a survey online about the proposals, which will affect residential streets in Ashburton, Woodside, Shirley, Heathfield and Fairfield wards, as well as Addiscombe and parts of Selhurst and South Norwood.

The 20mph restrictions will not apply to A roads, the major through-routes in the borough.

Residents, businesses and local groups – and Coulsdon-based Peter Morgan under his various online false identities – will have until May 20 to give their feedback online.  The deadline for paper copies received by post is May 23.

If there is enough public support for introducing 20mph limits across this area, the proposal will go to a formal consultation. The council’s traffic management committee would then make final recommendations.

Once in place, the council would monitor traffic speeds within the 20mph roads. If speeding remains an issue, options could include police enforcement and other traffic calming measures.

Information on the proposal will be available at www.croydon.gov.uk/20mph. The link to the online questionnaire for giving feedback can also be accessed from the same page.

And look out for those “Say No to 20mph” stickers, which are sure to be plastered (illegally) around the proposal area. Inside Croydon is offering a modest reward for photographic evidence which unveils the identity of the secretive anti-20mph zone fly-posters.

Despite all evidence which demonstrates that 20mph zones save lives, Morgan – who works closely with the local Tories – remains implacably opposed, even claiming such speed limits are in some way in breach of his human rights.


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