"It's bonkers": Outrage as Lancashire Road Safety Partnership 'pauses' investigations into speeding in 20mph zones

In a post on the Lancashire Road Safety Partnership website it states: “Due to the unprecedented number of speeding concerns we continue to receive relating to 20mph limits, we have made the difficult decision to pause the assessment of newly received 20mph limit concerns from the 1st July 2023 onwards, in order to concentrate on properly assessing and appropriately responding to existing 20mph limit concerns.”

"You cannot write this”

The news has been met with outrage from Lancashire councillors.

Farington East councillor Paul Wharton-Hardman said: “I cannot believe that rather than addressing the concerns of the community and tackling the issues head on from many residents, they’ve basically turned off the reporting as there are too many incidents! You cannot write this.

"It’s literally like the three monkeys “hear see and speak no evil’.’"

Councillor Wharton-Hardman says he has always been told by police that any issues raised around speeding must first be reported to the Road Safety Partnership, which has a ‘submit concern’ page on it’s website.

Coun Wharton-Hardman added: “This isn’t specific to one area, it is affecting the whole of Lancashire.

"Residents are quite rightly complaining about speeding in residential roads, near schools and playgrounds, and they’re asked to report it.

"They do, and it’s now not being addressed. It seems bonkers.”

He and fellow South Ribble councillor Jacky Alty have written to Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans about the situation.

What does the MP say?

In response Mr Evans said: “Clearly ensuring road users stick to the safe and appropriate speed limits has to be a priority for the police and local authorities and I am pleased you have brought this to my attention.“I have raised this with both the Police and Crime Commissioner and Lancashire County Council.”

"Fallen on deaf ears”

The councillors also claim that several Freedom of Information requests to Lancashire Police show there has been no fixed penalties issues for speeding in 20mph zones for many years, and say that “numerous” reports about persistent speeding problems submitted to Lancashire County Council “seem to have fallen on deaf ears.”

Supt Hassan Khan, of Lancashire Police said: “Due to the number of speed concerns submitted to the Road Safety Partnership, we have aligned extra resources to risk assess and prioritise the submissions in order to provide a timely response to the public.

“We are continuing to accept 20mph speed limit reports and would encourage anyone with any speed concerns to report to the Lancashire Road Safety Partnership website.”

The website can be found at https://lancsroadsafety.co.uk/submit-concern/.

The Post has reached out to Lancashire County Council and Lancashire Constabulary, founder members of the Lancashire Road Safety Partnership for comment.