Council labelled 'ghoulish' for 20mph speed limit reduction criteria as 30mph rollout set for approval

More than 20 Edinburgh roads will see their speed limits reduced to 30mph from 40mph as part of a city-wide push to reduce vehicle speeds.

The plans, set to be approved by councillors on Thursday, will see some of the Capital’s busiest roads such as Lanark Road and the West Approach Road drop to a 30mph limit.

Edinburgh City Council are also seeking approval for plans to consult on a further extension to the 20mph speed limit roll-out, with critics labelling the criteria necessary to meet before the installation of traffic calming measures such as speed bumps as “ghoulish”.

Transport spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, councillor Kevin Lang, said the council should not be “sitting morbidly” waiting for accidents to happen before acting.

Councillor Lesley Macinnes, transport and environment convener, said the council takes safety “extremely seriously” and has to prioritise “limited resources”.

Roads included in the roll-out of 30mph limits include Queensferry Road which the Evening News revealed was the worst hotspot for the fastest speeders in the city, as well as other busy roads such as Calder Road, Glasgow Road and Sir Harry Lauder Road.

If approved at the Transport and Environment committee meeting on Thursday, the move will take between a year and 18 months to be implemented, costing the council around £75,000.

The news comes as a further rollout of 20mph speed limits is also being considered, with the council looking for approval to consult on such a move.

'Ghoulish approach to traffic calming'

However, critics have blasted the criteria for reducing speeds on the roads - three personal injuries or deaths where speed is a contributing factor within three years - as “morbid”.

Cllr Kevin Lang said: “The whole point of the 20mph rollout was to prevent accidents and improve road safety.

“However, the Council takes a ghoulish approach to traffic calming, waiting for people to be injured or killed before physical measures are even considered.

“I think the Council should be taking steps to prevent accidents from happening in the first place, not sitting morbidly with a clipboard and a calculator to work out when enough people have been injured to justify action.”

Conservative transport spokesman, councillor Nick Cook added: "The proposed additional roll-out of 20mph limits fails to give councillors sufficient detail around the public consultation process and gives no real option for residents to dissent from the proposals or suggest 20mph streets which might best be returned to 30mph.

"On the review of 40mph streets, the proposed actions seem disproportionate to the scale of the issue, given speeds on most of these roads are well within tolerance. Resources would be best targeted at those roads with the highest collision rates."

'We take road safety extremely seriously'

In response, the council’s transport chief Cllr Lesley Macinnes said any other methodology would mean the council would be criticised for “simply listening to the loudest voices”.

She added the move to reduce some roads from 40mph to 30mph will make the city safer and more welcoming, with the potential for further traffic calming measures to be implemented in the future.

She said: “I take strong issue with Cllr Lang’s suggestion that the Council simply waits around for injuries before taking action.

“Any Council has both limited resources and a City-wide responsibility to place those resources where they can have the greatest positive effect on the safety of all those who use our roads and pavements.

“We take road safety extremely seriously, hence why we are working to reduce speed limits across the city.

“As is the case with other councils, we have to prioritise limited resources to address areas most in need of traffic calming measures, and use standardised methodology to ascertain where these areas are.

“If we did not apply such a methodology then we would be subject to accusations of simply listening to the loudest voices.”

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