The Tory mayoral frontrunner has sparked a row over road safety after pledging to lift 20mph speed limits on main roads in central London.
Susan Hall vowed to axe traffic measures introduced by Sadiq Khan, such as the 20mph limit on main “Red Route” thoroughfares such as Finchley Road, which she believes have unfairly penalised Londoners who need to use a car.
But Seb Dance, Mr Khan’s deputy mayor for transport, warned such a move would not speed up journey times and could be dangerous.
He said: “City streets are not motorways, they are shared spaces. They are shared with other road users such as cyclists [and] pedestrians.
“All of the research shows that the average speed in cities is well below 20mph, so you’re not going to get to your destination any [faster]. But the chances of being killed if you are struck by a vehicle at 20mph is significantly less than if you’re struck at 30mph.”
Ms Hall, a London Assembly who is competing against criminal barrister Moz Hossain KC, for the Tory nomination following the withdrawal of Dan Korski, also promised to use her “best endeavours” to axe low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) and said she would not introduce “pay per mile” road charging.
In an interview with the Evening Standard, she set out a range of policy ideas, which she insisted would be “fully costed” and deliverable.
Transport for London aims to convert almost 90 miles of main roads to 20mph by next May to improve road safety.
Ms Hall said she would retain 20mph limits in residential areas and added: "Around schools, I applaud them.”
In May the Standard revealed that Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby had been caught speeding on the Albert Embankment as he headed towards Lambeth Palace last October. He had been travelling at 25mph in a 20mph area.
The number of people being killed or seriously injured on London roads last year increased by 11 per cent, from 3,580 to 3,974.
TfL says that speed “remains the biggest risk to road users”, with about half of the fatal collisions last year (48 out of 99) reporting speed as a contributory factor.
It said cutting the speed limit to 20mph inside the central London congestion charge zone had helped reduce road collisions by a quarter.
Here’s @Councillorsuzie in her own words regarding her chances of becoming the Tory mayoral candidate pic.twitter.com/8N1nf3He9V
— Ross Lydall (@RossLydall) July 4, 2023
Ms Hall would abandon moves to build homes on suburban Tube station car parks, saying this discouraged people using the Tube on a “park and ride” basis.
She would “get rid of cycle lanes like the one in Park Lane” and lift restrictions on black taxis using some roads, such as part of Bishopsgate. “Black cabs go where buses go,” she said. “If we don’t use them we will lose them.”
She would abandon the Ulez expansion to Greater London “on day one” but retain the Ulez in its current form and target “pollution hotspots” by getting rid of diesel buses.
Her main focus as mayor would be on crime, in particular burglary, robbery and theft. She would return the Met police to a borough-based structure and reintroduce borough commanders.
She would give every frontline police officer a hand-held knife “wand” to enable them to check for weapons via “less intrusive” stop and search.
Ms Hall believes she has more support among grass-roots Tory members than her rivals, with more than 70 councillors backing her publicly.
Prominent supporters include Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch and MPs Bob Blackman – who would chair her mayoral campaign if she is selected – Theresa Villiers, Mike Freer and David Simmonds.
On housing, she would move away from high rise tower blocks full of one and two-bedroom flats to “high density, low rise” family homes, promising residents their “own front door and patch of garden, even if it is just a postage stamp”.
