South West Fife Area Committee
20th October 2010
Agenda Item No. 7
Objections to 20mph Speed Limit: Dalgety Bay & Inverkeithing
Report by: Dr Bob McLellan, Head of Transportation Services
Wards Affected: Ward 6: Inverkeithing & Dalgety Bay
Purpose
This report requests a Committee decision on 14 outstanding objections received
from members of the public to the proposed 20mph speed limit Traffic Regulation
Orders (TROs) for Dalgety Bay and Inverkeithing.
Recommendation(s)
It is recommended that Committee agree to over-rule the objections to allow the
20mph Speed Limit Orders to be made in the interest of road safety and to confirm
the Orders.
Resource Implications
There are budgets (£50,000 for Dalgety Bay & £40,000 for Inverkeithing) set aside
in this year’s Transportation Services Capital Budget to implement these 20mph
Zones. There are no known staff or property implications.
Legal & Risk Implications
The risk to pedestrians is lowered due to the reduction in traffic speeds associated
with these zones. There are no known legal implications.
Policy & Impact Assessment
In accordance with the sustainability objectives of the Fife Community Plan and
national and local transport objectives, 20mph zones are being rolled out to all
areas in Fife to meet key accident reduction targets and to tie in with the
overarching aims and objectives for improving community/road safety within key
Council policy documents such as the Council Plan, Community Safety Strategy,
Local Transport Plan and the Safer Travel Strategy.
No formal IIA was carried out during this project. However, the impact on the
residents and the impact on drivers are always considered during the design of the
zones.
Consultation
All consultation required by the Roads Traffic Regulation Act 1984 has been carried
out through posting of legal notices in the Dunfermline Press and in each of the
affected streets. In addition, details were also available online in FifeDirect.
1.0 Background
1.1
Fife Council policy is to provide residential 20 mph zones. This is based on both
local and national crash records and is noted in the Fife’s Safer Travel Strategy
2008 – 2011 and in the Scottish Government’s Road Safety Framework to 2020.
1.2
As part of the ongoing strategy to encourage more appropriate speeds in all
residential areas, Fife Council is promoting mandatory 20mph speed limits in
Dalgety Bay and Inverkeithing, as shown in drawing nos. TM/S/20/10/04 &
TM/S/20/10/07.
1.3
During the publication stage 25 items of correspondence were received regarding
Dalgety Bay. There are 14 outstanding objections.
1.4
1.5

19 formal written objections were received, 7 of which were withdrawn after
receiving correspondence from Transportation Services.

3 letters asking for further information were responded to and did not result in
an objection.

2 letters were responded to asking if they were formally objecting because this
was unclear. Neither responded so will be taken as objections.

1 letter of acceptance was received.
Regarding Inverkeithing there were 4 letters received. There is 1 outstanding
objection.

A letter was received from the Inverkeithing Community Council welcoming the
proposal.

2 letters asking for further information were responded to and did not result in
an objection.

Objection 5 to the Dalgety Bay 20mph Speed Limit also referred to the
Inverkeithing 20mph Speed Limit Order. Therefore, this must also be taken as
an objection to the Inverkeithing Order.
Full correspondence detailing the 14 outstanding objections will be available prior to
Committee.
2.0 Discussion
There were a number of points raised in the objection correspondences:-
2.1
“No accidents have occurred to their knowledge.”
Accidents are, by their definition, incidents that happen at random. Nobody can
definitively say that just because they don’t know of any accidents that there have
not been any nor will there be any in the future. The nature of the increasing car
ownership in society means more vehicles on the road than ever before so the
potential for accidents is also rising. The policy of introducing these schemes is a
proactive approach to accident prevention as well as reducing past accident figures
in all areas of Fife.
2.2
“Don’t want speed humps.”
This part of the consultation process is only relating to the 20mph Speed Limit;
there is no proposal for speed humps at this point in time as the design of the
20mph Zones is still being done. If any speed humps are to be proposed the
locations will be published in the Dunfermline Press and notices will be put up on
lighting columns nearest to the proposed locations. This would happen later on in
the year. The public can object to specific locations when that publication is live
and they have the same objection period for that process as they have for this one.
2.3
“Use the money to repair the roads.” / “Waste of public funds.”
£13.65M was spent in financial year 2009/10 Fife wide on roads maintenance.
20mph zones are separate from this budget.
With the national average cost of one fatal road accident being in the region of
£1.69M or a serious injury accident costing around £190,000, it is felt that the
financial and community benefits far outweigh the relatively small investment in
20mph Zones.
2.4
“Topography of streets involved & parked vehicles means drivers cannot
speed.”
Some of the newer developments are designed to 20mph standards with many
bends, culs-de-sacs and raised speed tables. However, many of the roads that lead
to the culs-de-sacs are straighter and it would be possible to reach speeds of
30mph. By including all of the culs-de-sacs in the 20mph Speed Limit Order,
Transportation Services can install “gateway” signage at the start of the estates
rather than in each road to cut down on excessive signage.
Parked vehicles may cut the speed of drivers when they are there, but these
vehicles will move away and are therefore not a permanent measure.
2.5
“Distributor roads are not included.”
The distributor roads (eg Moray Way) will not be part of the speed limit reduction
exercise because they are by their description distributors of all the traffic. The
nature of these roads is that they are built to carry the traffic at 30mph to the
residential roads (that we are proposing to change to 20mph).
2.6
“Budget should be used to buy speed cameras for distributor roads or
junction improvement at Eastern access on A921.”
There are no fixed speed cameras in Fife – the policy is mobile speed camera vans
only and this is an effective strategy.
In the accident records there have only been 2 recorded accidents since 2003 with
drivers pulling out in front of oncoming vehicles. This junction does not appear in
our list of top accident hot-spots. There is a separate budget for accident
prevention schemes where necessary.
2.7
The Scottish government’s ‘Road Safety Framework to 2020’ published earlier this
year states that it is committed to ‘encourage local authorities to consider 20mph
speed limits in all residential areas’. In this regard Fife Council is well on the way to
meeting this objective and the benefits are evident through the welcomed reduction
in injury accidents recorded in Fife.
2.8
The local elected members are aware of these schemes and Fife Constabulary are
generally supportive of 20mph Zones.
3.0 Conclusions
It is believed that the points raised by the objectors have been given full
consideration and that the 20mph speed limit Orders should be made to allow the
Pitreavie Estates Areas 20mph zones scheme to proceed.
List of Appendices
1. 20mph Speed Limit Plan, TM/S/20/10/04.
2. 20mph Speed Limit Plan, TM/S/20/10/07.
Background Papers
The following papers were relied on in the preparation of this report in terms of the Local
Government (Scotland) Act, 1973:

Full correspondence of Objection letters and responses

Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to 2020
Published by the Scottish Government, 2009
www.scotland.gov.uk

Local Transport Strategy for Fife 2006 - 2026
Report Contact
Lesley King
Technician Engineer
Transportation Services, Traffic Management (South), New City House, Dunfermline
Telephone: 08451 55 55 55 Ext. 480082
Lesley.King@fife.gov.uk