ONE year ago, on September 16, 2023, the Welsh Government’s hugely controversial and extremely costly 20mph speed limit policy came into force, Natasha Ashgar MS writes.
At the time, Labour ministers in Cardiff Bay assured the public that they would soon get used to their new drastic law, and it would simply become the norm.
How wrong they were.
Twelve months on, opposition to the scheme – which was pushed through with the help of Plaid Cymru and the sole Lib Dem in the Welsh Parliament – continues to grow.
We have seen countless protests across the country, with miffed motorists regularly gathering at the Welsh Parliament to make their voices heard. A record-breaking petition calling for the policy to be rescinded gained nearly 500,000 signatures in a short space of time.
I must pay tribute to Mark Baker, who started the petition, and all of those who continue to stand up and make their voices heard. We must not give up the fight.
Over the last 12 months, I have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with many of the protesters and met some truly wonderful people.
They aren’t unreasonable people. They are decent, hardworking individuals who are being seriously affected by this disastrous policy, whether that be simply trying to get from A to B or their business suffering as a result – and everything else in between.
The overarching message of the protesters – myself included – is that we are all for road safety but believe this is an extremely heavy-handed way of combatting the issue.
Without a doubt, there is a place for 20mph speed limits outside schools, hospitals, playgrounds, places of worship and busy high streets, but the approach taken by the Welsh Government has been far too drastic.
Even Lee Waters MS, the man originally behind the £33m scheme, has admitted mistakes were made.
If only he were in a position to rectify the long list of errors in the first place…
Despite Mr Waters finally – and dare I say reluctantly –holding his hands up, it unfortunately doesn’t look like anything is really going to change.
The powers that be in Cardiff Bay might have adopted a change in rhetoric, and we are yet to see what the new First Minister has up her sleeve, but I fear it is more of the same.
Ken Skates MS, the current transport secretary, has insisted that local authorities are reviewing all feedback after more than 10,500 requests were made for roads to be reassessed, following yet another ‘listening programme’ by the Welsh Government.
It is worth noting that this is the second listening programme by the Welsh Labour Government in the space of a year and the third First Minister in seven months following Vaughan Gething’s controversial tenure as First Minister, during which he accepted £200,000 from a convicted criminal for his leadership campaign.
So, it may be all well and good running these listening programmes as a PR exercise, but who has to pick up the work following them? It would seem the Welsh Government thinks it’s our local councils’ responsibility. But our councils are already seriously overstretched, and it seems incredibly unfair for Labour ministers to be lumbering them with their poor decisions.
This is the Welsh Government’s mess to sort out. Simply fobbing it off onto local authorities won’t wash.
It’s high time Labour ministers face up to their mistakes and rectify them instead of trying to turn a blind eye and pretend everything is hunky dory.
In addition, last time I checked, weren’t the government elected in Wales to be in touch with their country, people and councils?
How have we reached a stage where the Labour Government is so out of touch and far removed from people on the ground that they have to conduct a listening exercise to understand what people want and need?
It’s yet another interesting moment for Welsh Labour in 2024. After all, this year hasn’t exactly been the best year for the Welsh Labour Party. Despite a Labour landslide in Westminster, Labour in Cardiff Bay has seemed more fractured than ever.
But even the cracks in the red are starting to show on the other side of the M4, with some of UK Labour’s first manoeuvres in power being to give train drivers on £65,000 a £10,000 pay rise while taking Winter Fuel Payments away from pensioners, failing to declare £19,000 worth of clothes for the Prime Minister’s wife and the early release of 1,750 inmates (so far) due to overcrowded prisons.
A somewhat controversial few weeks in office.
If – like me, you are panicking about what the next four years under Labour will look like across the UK – I would say your worries are justified.
We know all too well across Wales what 25 years of Labour can do to a country. We have the worst NHS waiting times in the UK, the worst educational outcomes and the highest economic inactivity rate, to name a few.
But this is where we come in, the Welsh Conservatives.
We are here to offer you a viable alternative to another 25 years of decline under Labour in Wales. This route would make transport accessible, practical and efficient- and the default 20mph speed limit would be abolished.
We would revoke Labour’s policy and instead adopt a targeted, common-sense approach to get our country moving again and stop frittering money away on pet projects.
Unlike Reform UK politicians, who appear to have jumped on the anti-20mph bandwagon, the Welsh Conservatives have opposed this policy from day one.
We cannot afford another year of widespread 20mph speed limits. The time for talking is over. Now is the time for meaningful action.
Maybe, just maybe, the continuing fallout from the 20mph policy will serve as a wake-up call for Ministers to focus on the issues that truly matter to the people of Wales instead of pushing ahead with costly and unpopular vanity projects.
It’s not too late for Labour to chart a new course. It remains to be seen whether they are serious about ‘listening’ to the public or whether these feedback-gathering events were just another example of ministers paying lip service.
Only time will tell.
