Rotten Boroughs: Lancashire County Council

Hat tip to the Moose for highlighting the balmy scheme by Lancashire County Council to reduce the speed limit in residential areas from 30 to 20mph across the entire county by 2013.

The response to this hair brained idea is, to say the least, unfavourable. But that doesn't seem to worry the council who intend to implement it anyway at an estimated cost of £9 million - so it is good to know that in these times of 'all in it together' and spending cuts that this quantity of money can be just flushed unnecessarily down the toilet.

Perhaps the honorable councillors of Lancashire should have had a word with Ken Livingston. When mayor of London, Ken had a policy of "encouraging councils to make a wholesale switch from 30mph to 20mph, amid evidence that the slower limits could cut accidents and injuries by half."

But the policy was scotched when Boris Johnson came to power. Boris said he would support 20mph zones in residential areas where local people wanted them. But because of "finite budgets", priority would only go to areas with a high number of accidents - especially those involving vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestrians. The Green Party attacked his decision, claiming it would cost " hundreds" of lives.

Scare mongering it seems runs rife in this idea. In Lancashire, councillor Tim Ashton says he wants speeding in built-up areas to be ‘as taboo as drink driving’ in a bid to halt the thousands of people killed or injured on the region’s roads every year. Only, as the Moose quite rightly points out, 702 deaths in 2009 is hardly thousands and a lot of those weren't caused by speeding.

Then it gets worse. Apparently, LCC wants to appoint vigilante groups of local residents and arm them with speed guns to help enforce the limit. Councillor Ashton says “I think there will be a huge amount of support for what we are doing but if there are critics I will take them head-on."

I suggest he should read his post bag and stop being so bloody arrogant.

It's a daft idea, the ratepayers oppose it and there's no money to pay for it...