How refreshing to read an article about the Welsh government’s default 20mph speed limit policy that unemotionally sets out the facts and leaves readers to decide whether or not it has been a success (Wales’s 20mph speed limit saves lives and money. So why has it become a culture-war battlefield, 18 November?). The policy is working: it saves public money, reduces the number of serious traffic accidents and lightens the load on the NHS in Wales.
The latest data vindicates Lee Waters MS who, as transport minister, masterminded the policy and argued long and hard for its benefits. He suffered much criticism, ridicule and verbal abuse at the time, not least from Andrew RT Davies, the leader of the Welsh Conservatives. In September 2023, Waters survived a Senedd vote of no confidence initiated by Davies and his party, but has said he will step down from the Senedd in 2026.
