Why did Burwell Parish Council apply for consideration of a 20mph Scheme?

In 2018 the Parish Council formed a group to look at how we could make Burwell a safer place to live. 20 mph was one of the considerations of this group due to:

• strong evidence for the effectiveness of 20 mph zones in reducing casualties;
• Burwell having many long and straight roads which allow some to travel at dangerous speeds/far greater than the 30 mph speed limit. This applies to cars, motor bikes and lorries;
• concerns regarding safety from young and old;
• excess noise created from speeding which upon canvassing in North Burwell (Toyse Lane and North Street) many people find invasive.
• speed creating confrontation (road rage) in some instances

A traffic survey was completed in 2018/2019. A total of 528 responses were obtained from both online and paper-based responses from the village wide survey. The scores were averaged for analysis. Traffic volume was rated the highest concern scoring 7.96 out of 10, followed closely by Speed at 7.44. Lowering the speed limit was the preferred choice for speed reduction. This village wide consultative traffic survey, both online and via Clunch, highlighted that one of the main concerns that residents have is the speed at which vehicles travel through the village.

 

What happened next?

To encourage greater speed awareness the Council’s Safety Group formulated a safety awareness campaign which ran from March 2022 until March 2023. This consisted of:

 

• A Public Village Community Meeting held on Wednesday October 22nd 2022, at the Gardiner Memorial Hall to discuss road safety with a panel of key groups and authorities.
• Three Moveable Vehicle Activated Speed signs were acquired, which were moved between varied locations during the campaign
• A new Pedestrian Crossing was installed on Ness Road through Local Highway Initiative Funding

We highlighted ‘20’s Plenty in Burwell’ and engaged with residents in the following ways:

1. Media: Clunch, Facebook, Burwell Parish Council website
2. Events: Burwell at Large, the Annual Parish Meeting and Burwell Carnival
3. Saturday morning stands outside the Co-op, with car and bin sticker distribution
4. A competition run with Burwell Village College (Primary) School to create a poster to encourage drivers to slow down in the village. The winning poster was used for signs around the village and also on the front page of the Clunch – a magazine delivered to every house in the village.
5. Over 300 villagers signed pledge sheets and Traffic Light ribbons supporting 20’s Plenty in Burwell.
6. Safety Campaign material was sent to local businesses and members of Federation of Small Businesses.
7. Brownies and Guiding groups reflected on speeding in the village at one of their meetings.

The Parish Council considered a motion to submit an application for the Local Highways Initiative to introduce 20 mph restrictions in Cambridgeshire parishes on 11th April 2023. The following motion was agreed with a vote of 12 Councillors for and 1 against.

‘That the Council applies for the reduction of the speed limit from 30 mph to 20 mph throughout the village through the current Local Highways Initiative. The Council will consult further with the community to seek its views’.

The application was submitted for consideration by Cambridgeshire County Council. This scheme would be at no cost to the village at all – the funds being ring-fenced and provided by Government solely for the 20 mph initiative. Cambridgeshire County Council Highways confirmed on the 4th October 2023 that Burwell’s application for the introduction of the 20 mph limits had been successful.

A village wide consultation began at the beginning of August 2023 both online, via the Parish Council Website and Burwell Community Facebook Page and in Clunch (August/September issue). Unfortunately, the results from this survey were invalidated due to the way the survey was designed and excessive entries from the same IP addresses. We were unable to get meaningful results. What it did demonstrate was that there are very strong feelings both for and against a 20mph scheme and more consultation is needed.

Our approach now is to speak to residents face to face, provide a clearer picture of what the different options could be, with maps included and get your views prior to a statutory consultation with Highways. See more details here.

We have tried to make the times and locations in the village varied to give as many people as possible the ability to talk to us and provide their views. If you are unable to attend please see our contact details for how to get in touch.