The London Borough of Islington is proposing to introduce a 20mph speed limit on all roads in the borough. At present their wide-area scheme does not cover a few main roads such as those roads controlled by Transport for London (typically “Red routes”), but Islington are introducing this change by simply introducing a “Consolidation Order” to extend coverage.

Transport for London now seem to be supporting the extension of 20mph speed limits to other major roads in places such as Tower Hamlets, Camden and the City of London. They will of course be enforced by the police as has already been taking place in Islington.

There has been no wider public consultation on these proposals but you can object to the Islington change by sending an email to public.realm@islington.gov.uk quoting Reference TMO/4296 before the 3rd July 2015.

We have already objected to this change on the following grounds:

1. It is simply unreasonable to impose a 20mph restriction on main routes and will result in a considerable slowing of traffic and hence an increase in journey times.
2. There will be no road safety benefit as a result of this change as it has been clearly demonstrated in other parts of London, and in the rest of the country, that introducing such limits does not reduce casualties. Indeed in some cases they have increased.
3. This change pre-empts the results of a Government study which has been commissioned by the Department of Transport which is investigating the benefits (or otherwise) or wide-area signed-only 20 mph schemes.
4. There has been no proper public consultation on this matter as there should be.

Roger Lawson