Village’s speed limits could change, despite opposition

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter

Potential changes to the speed limit going through a local village will be put to a Powys County Council cabinet member for a decision, but they are not backed by the community council.

A month-long consultation on the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) to modify the speed limit on a section of the B4393 road at Crew Green was held from the end of October to the end of November.

It is proposed to allow parts of the 30mph speed limit to rise to 40mph and for access roads off the main road into housing estates to be dropped to 20mph.

The need to change the speed limit is due to a number of new housing developments that have been approved and are currently being built in the village.

Cabinet Member for Highways, Transport and Recycling, Cllr Jackie Charlton (Liberal Democrat – Llangattock and Llangynidr), will receive a report on April 8 on the response to the consultation.

She will then be asked to make a delegated decision on the proposal.

Traffic Engineer North, Chris Lloyd, said that 22 representations were received by the council during the consultation.

Of these, 14 responses supported the proposal, one was neutral, and seven objections were received.

One of the objections came from Bausley with Criggion Community Council, which encompasses the village.

At a council meeting in November, they came up with five reasons for their objection and explained them in great detail - but in the report these have all been rebutted by Powys Highways officers.

Bausley and Criggion Council said: “There was unanimity from all attending that the proposed speed limit changes are ill-thought through and will represent a missed opportunity to adapt the speed limits in Crew Green to meet concerns of local residents, adhere to Welsh Government guidance, and to keep traffic moving through our village as safely and efficiently as possible.”

Powys County Councillor for the village, Lucy Roberts (Conservative – Llandrinio), understood that legislation only asks the highways authority to “take into account” objections and that they don’t need to come up with alternative proposals from comments made by villagers during the consultation.

Cllr Roberts said: “It is disappointing that it has not been possible to extend the 30mph east past the Melverley and Bryn Mawr junctions, for which I have received many requests over the years.

“I do, however, note that the highway authority is prepared to review the speed limit past that junction at a future date in the event that further significant development occurs along this stretch of road.”

Mr Lloyd said: “The representations received did not identify any new factors or risks that had not already been considered by the project team when drawing up the speed limit proposal.

“The highway authority project team’s recommendation to the cabinet member is to note but overrule all the objections received from representors and instruct highway officers to make the Order as proposed as a matter of urgency.”

Cllr Charlton could listen to this advice and proceed with the traffic order or uphold the objections and scrap the scheme altogether.