A resident from Richmond has spoke out in opposition following the announcement that a borough wide 20mph limit is likely to be implemented.

Following a 12-week consultation, which received almost 10,000 responses, Richmond Council announced the amended proposals will be implemented if they are approved by the scrutiny committee on March 25.

Ian Manning spoke to the Richmond and Twickenham Times, commenting: "So Richmond Council intends to proceed with a borough-wide 20mph speed limit, despite a 6-week consultation which resulted in a majority of respondents objecting to the proposal.

"The Council claim to have made amendments to the proposal in response to feedback from the consultation, but one of the most common objections expressed (that the plans were indiscriminate, rather than targeted at known problem areas) has been ignored – i.e. this will be a blanket speed restriction, with only a tiny handful of exceptions (less than half a dozen roads).

"Not mentioned in this was the fact that a government-commissioned survey in 2018 (conducted by the Atkins consultancy) found that there is insufficient evidence that a 20mph speed limit has led to a significant reduction in the number of crashes and casualties in UK residential areas.

"The available documents on the LBRUT website are an object lesson in how to manipulate survey results to suit a narrative, and a Richmond Councillor, in a Youtube video published this week, disingenuously presented the outcome as “roughly 50 per cent of the borough supported our proposal”, not mentioning that a majority opposed it.

"A more reasonable response to the public’s feedback would have been to change the proposal to a selective, risk-based extension of 20mph speed limits. This could have identified problem routes based on historical data, and left non-problematic routes alone. This simple change of approach would have gained much more public support.

"As it is, LBRUT seems intent on introducing high-impact legislation which it does not have the necessary level of public support, and which is also not supported by any hard scientific evidence."

In its original form, 47.9 per cent of people favoured the proposals, while 49.7 per cent of people were against it.

52 per cent of respondents agreed that a 20 mph limit should reduce the number and severity of road accidents. Taking the views into consideration, the council amended the proposals.

In response, Cllr Alexander Ehmann, Cabinet Member for Transport, Streetscene and Air Quality said: “The Liberal Democrats took control of Richmond Council in May 2018, with a manifesto commitment to introduce a borough-wide 20mph.

"Once in office, we felt it appropriate to consult with residents and understand the views on our proposal. That consultation resulted in a margin of only 171 responses between those opposing and supporting the proposal and we have subsequently made changes that remove or amend roads that cited by more respondents than the headline difference in views.

"We have altered our proposal following extensive consultation, but while also acknowledging wider findings from the consultation.

"Our amended proposal will not please everyone, but a consultation exercise is not a binary referendum where a majority triumphs over the minority; particularly when that majority is wafer-thin.

"A consultation seeks to find compromise, improvement and tries to shape a proposal that accommodates the plurality of views, whilst nonetheless delivering on its core objectives; in this case, reducing the incidence and seriousness of road traffic collisions in the borough, while also contributing to this administration’s strong commitment to improving air quality for our residents.

"We remain confident that once implemented, those residents with initial reservations about our plans, will find that our amended proposal confers many benefits.

"We only have to look at our neighbour, Wandsworth, who only last week announced that their own 20mph roll-out had been a road safety and air quality success, and that they now want to go further. Like Wandsworth, we know from other places around the country that have been on this journey that very few people want to return to 30mph when they have made the switch to 20mph.”