A NORTH Wales MS claims that the new Transport Secretary has agreed the guidelines surrounding the 20mph limit need to change to allow more roads to revert back to 30mph.
Carolyn Thomas, Member of the Senedd for North Wales, recently organised a meeting between representatives from councils across North Wales, Transport For Wales (TfW), Arriva, and the Welsh Government 20mph taskforce.
Representatives from councils across North Wales put forward their experiences of the new 20mph speed limits to those undertaking the Welsh Government’s review of the rollout.
The meeting was organised by Ms Thomas, who has been "concerned" by the impact the new default speed limit has had along arterial routes.
Local councils have the ability to vary speed limits as the highway authority, however, concerns have been raised about the lack of clarity regarding exemption criteria as well as council liability.
Carolyn Thomas said: "I recently met with representatives from all North Wales Councils, the Welsh Government 20 mph task group, Arriva and a Transport for Wales representative to find a pragmatic way forward to make arterial routes back up to 30 mph as quickly as possible.
"Especially for North Wales which has a lot of ribbon and inter-urban development so is greatly impacted."
Following the meeting, Ms Thomas also revealed she had discussed plans to revert roads back to 30mph with new Transport Secretary Ken Skates.
She added: "I have recently talked with the newly appointed Cabinet Secretary for Transport Ken Skates, regarding the meetings I have held so far and how the guidelines need changing as soon as possible so councils in North Wales feel confident about making roads back up to 30 mph.
"He has agreed this needs to happen as soon as possible and there will be an announcement in the early few weeks of him being in post."
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “The Cabinet Secretary has been clear that his immediate priority on 20mph is to listen. To support this, in the weeks ahead he will be engaging with elected representatives, businesses and communities across Wales.”
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