Car Insurance
Lower speeds in villages called for
Thu, 13 Oct 2005
An alarming 70 per cent of country councils around the UK have failed to implement 30mph speed limits in villages, a report by the BBC has found.
Calling for government action to enforce the speed limits the rural campaign group, Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), found that a large majority of Britain's villages carried 60mph speed limits, encouraging motorists to drive recklessly through suburban areas and pushing up car insurance premiums.
The CPRE wants changes made to the Road Safety Bill for a national default of 30 mph to be applied to all villages throughout the country, thus removing the need for signing and speed-change requests.
Around £6,000 is currently spent by the government each time they lower the speed limit in a specific area.
"We know lower speeds save lives and make places less threatening," Paul Hamblin, CPRE's head of transport policy, told the BBC.
"The waiting list for villages needing help from speeding traffic is unacceptable," he went on.
"Villages are places where people live - not simply places you drive through. We need ministers to take action by introducing a default 30mph limit."
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