‘We haven’t got resources to police lower speed limits’

And the committee should consider investing in automated measures – which could include speed cameras – to help overcome that if it does proceed with introducing the new restrictions in roads around centres such as the Bridge.

Home Affairs and Guernsey Police have both written to E&I following its 25mph proposals.

Deputy Mary Lowe, the Home Affairs president, said her committee had expressed both a political view and also endorsed what the police said.

The full responses have not been published, but she provided a summary of the ‘key messages’ that Home wanted E&I to take into account while assessing limits:

while there may be arguments for reassessing speed limits around certain danger spots or stretches of highway, the blanket approach does not appear to be sufficiently evidence based;

as a general principle, initiatives which improve road safety and ensure the free flow of traffic are to be welcomed;

regardless of the defined speed limit most drivers (and not just in Guernsey) proceed at a speed they consider appropriate for the road in question;

where lower speed limits are set around schools, there is the option for these to apply only when the schools are open;

it is recognised that the police currently focus on the reckless few who travel at excessive speeds, thereby putting all in danger. This is an operational focus which the committee fully endorses;

revising the speed limits may create a public expectation regarding a level of enforcement that is unlikely to be met within finite police resources. However an investment by the E&I in traffic control and management technology linked to an automated fixed penalty system could be a partial solution.

E&I welcomed Home’s ‘endorsement of initiatives to improve road safety’ and its interest in traffic control management technology and a fixed penalty system.

‘However, far from being a “blanket approach” to speed limits, as described by Home Affairs, the draft proposals encompass the areas that have been identified as those with the greatest concentrations of services and facilities accessed regularly by islanders.

‘The draft proposals simply make the speed limits around our schools and in our main and local centres more consistent, in line with the island’s existing, long-established speed limits policy of lower speeds in busy community areas.’

It said internationally recognised road safety guidelines advise that speed limits are set according to objective safety criteria, for example how many people are likely to access an area on foot or bike and whether there is any separated infrastructure for them.

‘The speed people feel is appropriate to drive a vehicle is often very different to the speed people on foot, bike or mobility scooter feel is appropriate for other vehicles to pass them.

‘There is extensive evidence that these vulnerable road users are and – as importantly – feel safer in busy community areas when traffic speeds are slower, and whilst speed limits are not the only means to achieve slower speeds, they are nonetheless an important part of the equation.

‘The committee recognises that the police have finite resources to allocate to road harm reduction and welcomes the opportunity to work with them across a range of measures that will achieve the aim of safer roads for everyone.’