Transport Secretary gives green light for 20mph zones across the UK

The Transport Secretary has said that decisions over 20mph zones and low traffic neighbourhoods should be left to local councils, rather than central government.

Louise Haigh said that the previous government became embroiled in "culture wars" over traffic restrictions, which she wanted to avoid.

She said the Department for Transport's (DfT) would give its "full support" to authorities in England that wanted to roll out 20mph schemes, adding that local residents should be consulted in advance.

LTNs involve preventing vehicles from using some residential streets and were deployed by many councils during coronavirus lockdowns in 2020 to make it easier for people to walk and cycle. But concerns were raised about the impact of LTNs on drivers. Rishi Sunak, during his time as prime minister, called them "hare-brained schemes".

Ms Haigh, speaking to the Streets Ahead podcast, acknowledged the previous government's financial support for active travel before adding the new Labour administration wants to "invest on unprecedented levels".

She added: "Where we will absolutely differ, as I say, is this provocation of culture wars."

Ms Haigh said the previous government invested heavily during Covid but "then they took the money away again", adding that this left a lot of local authorities "in limbo and paralysis".

She went on: "It's really, really difficult for local authorities when they've not got that air cover from government.

"And not only did they not have the air cover, they had the government actively working against them saying 'No, you're not allowed to roll out 20mph zones, no, you're not allowed to roll out LTNs' - those kinds of decisions should absolutely be made at a local level by communities and not dictated to or stoked up by the centre, and this Government has ended all culture wars full stop, but there's no way you'll be hearing that from this department now."

Ms Haigh added: "Local authorities will have my full support to roll out schemes. It all has to be done with communities, absolutely, and the worst thing you can do is put the wrong schemes in because then it erodes that support and they can be unsafe in some circumstances."

She said funding will be considered in the Budget and comprehensive spending review, adding: "But all local authorities that want to do this have my absolute support.

"We're certainly not shying away from the target of getting 50% short journeys walking and cycling and that will have to be delivered by local authorities, so anybody who wants to do that work, they'll have the Department for Transport's full backing."

Asked if this applied to cycle lanes and LTNs, Ms Haigh replied: "Yeah, absolutely, that is entirely up to local areas to decide and it was completely wrong for the previous government to say that they would dictate that from Whitehall.

"There's no way me sitting in my office in the DfT can say 'This road in Chester should be a 20mph road or not', it's completely ridiculous, so if they want to do that then that's got my full backing."