Select committee to look at proposals for speed limit reductions across North East Lincolnshire

PLANNED speed limit reductions across North East Lincolnshire are being put back to the drawing board.

A select committee of five councillors will be set up to consider the proposals and look at alternative measures for improving road safety in the borough.

As reported, highways bosses at North East Lincolnshire Council have outlined 11 separate speed limit reductions, ranging from new 20mph zones around schools, to a 50mph limit on the A18 Barton Street.

The proposed scheme met with opposition from some councillors, and campaigner Hayden Dawkins, who questioned the effectiveness of a "blanket speed reduction".

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And at a meeting of the council's regeneration, housing and environment scrutiny panel, councillors voted to set up a select committee to look at the proposals in more depth.

There was, however, unanimous support for the three proposed 20mph safety zones around Old Clee School, The Leas School in Waltham, and Stanford School in Laceby, which the panel recommended go ahead as advertised.

The remaining eight proposals will be looked at by the select committee.

Councillor Philip Jackson (Con, Waltham), who had led the call for a full review, said: "We can all agree that the one thing we want to do is improve road safety and reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads. The debate is how best to do that, and I am not convinced that just having a blanket reduction in speed is the best way to go.

"We will be setting a bit of a precedent here and we need to be confident that we are doing the right thing before we spend the money."

Councillor Jackson said that the council needed to be more "imaginative" and less "Stalinist" in its approach to road safety, adding: "We need to be raising the game for drivers generally and this is the lazy man's way of dealing with it. There's more to road safety than just cutting speed limits."

Councillor Peter Wheatley, the portfolio holder for regeneration and environment, suggested that the select committee could look at road safety across all part of the borough, not just the sections of road listed in the proposals.

He said: "If we put a 20mph speed limit in, what wider impact will that have? Will it create rat runs in other areas?"

Keep reading your Grimsby Telegraph for updates on this story.