Brentwood Conservatives voted for common sense at last night's Strategy and Policy Board.
Labour councillor, Mike Le Surf presented a motion to put pressure on Essex County Council to introduce a 20mph speed limit across Brentwood, despite the fact that in March this year, the County Council had already pledged to support the lower speed limit in areas identified by the Local Highways Panel.
Keith Parker, Spokesman for Parking and Chairman of the Borough's Local Highways Panel said: "The motion was a bizarre one. Not because we don't support the sentiment, we do. Conservatives have been calling for changes to allow 20mph in suitable areas for a long time. It's good to see Labour get on board and back our campaign but it's too little, too late. Our discussions with ECC have already proved fruitful. Why Labour chose to put forward a motion after the event is baffling!"
As early as 2006, Conservatives were leading on the "Twenty's Plenty" campaign, calling for 20mph speed limits to be introduced in residential areas, where it would be beneficial. Last year, a review of speed policy was carried out by the County Council and on the 19th March this year, the then Cabinet Member declared that approval would be given for local highways panels to bring in the reduced speed limit, where appropriate.
Roger Hirst, Deputy Leader of Brentwood Council and County Councillor for Brentwood Hutton division said "Labour are once again running behind the times. Rather than perform outdated publicity stunts and waste the Council's time and effort, they would do better to do the work on where the 20mph would be beneficial and get the areas put forward to the Highways Panel for approval. We already have the backing of the County Council for this and the Leader has given his personal support to the scheme. Brentwood Conservatives will be working to deliver on the reduction of speed limits across the Borough."