Theale to get 20mph speed limit trial

The 20 is plenty speed limit is coming to Theale.

It is a pilot project to potentially roll the 20 miles per hour limit out across other areas of West Berkshire.

But less than one per cent of Theale’s population of approximately 3,000 responded to the consultation.

A statutory consultation on a proposal to introduce lower speed limits on various roads in Theale was held between April 25 and June 6 this year.

A total of 54 responses to the consultation were received, of which 26 were in favour of the proposals and 22 were against or included a specific objection. Six responses were neutral. Only 23 lived in Theale.

Some respondents believed that, without enforcement, the 20mph speed limits would not be respected; others were concerned that the limits would be rigorously enforced in order to generate income from fines.

The main part of the proposal was to reduce the speed limit on the majority of residential roads in the parish from 30mph to 20mph, but three roads were proposed to be reduced from either 40mph or the national speed limit to 30mph.

The previous work done on 20mph speed limits determined that it would not be cost effective or manageable to implement 20mph speed limits on a street-by-street basis in response to individual requests from the community and that an area-wide approach was preferable.

Furthermore, introducing 20mph speed limits on roads with particular characteristics on an area-wide basis, rather than on specific roads in response to individual requests, is considered more likely to have a positive impact on vehicle speeds because drivers’ expectations of what a 20mph “looks and feels like” would be re-set.

This does not mean that the default 30mph speed limit is proposed to reduce to 20mph in the same way that the Welsh Government did in 2023.

In this pilot project, all the residential roads in Theale were assessed against draft criteria to determine whether they are suitable to be reduced to 20mph limits.

The draft criteria include the road classification and type – residential no-through-roads are more likely to be suitable for 20mph limits and ‘main’ or distributor roads less suitable, the level of roadside development and the presence of schools.

The scheme will get the nod from the council today (Friday), and will include post-implementation monitoring of vehicle speeds to gauge compliance with new speed limits.

Thames Valley Police have made it clear that no additional enforcement for newly lowered speed limits will be carried out over and above their current routine activity.

The council says speed limits should be “self-enforcing” and where vehicle speeds are not within an acceptable margin of the speed limit, further measures may be required to promote compliance, which would in turn require additional funding.