A few weeks ago, two groups of protesters gathered on the steps of the Senedd in Cardiff Bay. One demonstration was against the war in Gaza; the other, against the Welsh government’s two-year-old default 20mph speed limit in urban areas.
The change from 30mph was brought in by the Welsh Labour government across about 35% of the country’s roads in September 2023, at a cost of £34m. The reduced speed limit applied to any built-up area, defined as roads where lamp-posts were no more than about 180 metres apart.
Last week a small study by GoSafe, which monitors road cameras, found the policy had added an average of two minutes to journey times of differing lengths, aggravating an already bitter culture war over legislation designed to save lives.
Collisions along roads that have changed from 30mph to 20mph decreased by 19% in 2024 compared with 2023, and 100 fewer people a year have been killed or badly hurt in road traffic accidents, according to Welsh government figures.
Yet according to canvassing Senedd members and local councillors, the issue remains deeply unpopular with voters as the country’s embattled Labour administration gears up for elections next May.
The former first minister Mark Drakeford, who spearheaded the policy, has previously said he was surprised at the level of opposition and anger the new limit provoked. The backlash included protests, defacing and knocking down new speed limit signs, and a petition signed by nearly half a million people opposing the policy – the largest in the Senedd’s history.
Phil Jones, a chartered engineer and transport planning expert who chaired the Welsh government taskforce on establishing the 20mph default, said the policy was working “exactly as intended”.
“There’s nothing preventing local authorities from putting the limit back up. We reviewed practices in other places, journey times, economic impact; none of this should be a surprise,” he said.
“Say all the roads go back up and casualties go up again too. What is an acceptable death toll that justifies getting to work two minutes faster? That’s what people who want to get rid of it need to answer.”
More than 130,000 drivers – or 34% of people with licences in Wales – have been caught breaking the lower limit since it was introduced, while the most recent YouGov polling, from a year ago, found seven in 10 people opposed the 20mph default.
The Welsh Conservatives have consistently called for the law to be scrapped over what the party says is the confusion and frustration it causes for drivers.
Sam Rowlands, the shadow cabinet secretary for transport, said: “It’s a hard balance to strike but as a country we’ve been doing this risk assessment for decades, and we landed on 30mph. It’s a huge waste of taxpayer money.”
Ken Skates, who took over as transport cabinet secretary in March 2024, was quickly forced into a partial climbdown, giving councils £5m to reassess local speed limits over what he described as “consistent” concerns.
Last month, Wrexham began changing 52 roads back to 30mph. Newport council has named 14 roads where the speed limit will go up again, while in Blaneau Gwent one road has changed back, and in Ceredigion no changes are planned.