MP calls for 20mph speed limit outside all schools
An MP in Walsall has launched a campaign calling for a 20mph speed limit to be introduced outside all schools in her constituency.
MP ValerieVaz said it was 'unacceptable' 29 children were killed on British roads last year and that those lives might have been saved if the limit had been lowered.
The Labour MP for Walsall South, whose brother Keith is also a long-standing MP, said she had been made aware of two recent 'near misses' outside Joseph Leckie Academy on Walstead Road West and Bentley West Primary School on Monmouth Road.
Launching her campaign Mrs Vaz said: "There is compelling evidence that lower speed limits prevent serious injuries and deaths on our roads.
"It is quite clear that 30mph speed limits outside schools are unsafe and so I am calling for 20mph speed limits to be introduced instead."
She added: "I consulted all headteachers in Walsall South to ask whether they would support the implementation of 20mph speed limits outside their schools. Thirty headteachers out 38 responded and every response was in favour of implementing 20mph speed limits outside all schools."
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has published statistics showing that pedestrians hit by a car travelling at 20mph have a 1.5 per cent fatality risk compared to an eight per cent fatality risk for those hit by a car travelling at 30mph.
The report said 20mph speed limits reduce speeds and increase safety even without the use of traffic calming and are a cost effective way to "drastically improve safety for our children."
Walsall Council will now need to carry out a 21 day consultation and make a Traffic Regulation Order.
Residents in Halesowen, Dudley, have recently been consulted over a £75,000 scheme to cut speed limits and revise road layouts in a bid to boost safety outside Lapal Primary School, which has been made part of Dudley Council's Safer Routes to School scheme.
Meanwhile, speed limits in Sandwell are set to be cut after almost half of people questioned by the council admitted they didn't feel safe walking.
A consultation run by the authority found 47 per cent of around 300 respondents felt that walking in Sandwell was either not 'very safe' or even 'fairly safe', leading bosses to reduce the limit from 30mph to 20mph on some residential streets.
