Westmorland and Furness Council announced plans to introduce 20mph speed limits in communities that requested them at the end of 2023.
Town and parish council were asked to put forward areas for 20mph speed limits leading to Penrith Town Council and a local residents group submitting areas including a Penrith Wide 20mph zone along with a number of smaller areas if the town wide was not delivered including a 20mph limit through Castletown that had local community support, along with Beacon Edge, Drovers Lane area Fell Lane! Macadam Way area New Streets area, Raiselands Croft and Skirsgill Lane. None of these have made it into the Westmorland and Furness council implementation list for 2024/25.
A meeting if the Eden Locality Board next week will be asked to approve a number of smaller schemes in Eden omitting any measures in Penrith.
The list of 12 areas in Eden the council plan to create 20mph speed limits following a public consultation in each area and creation of the required Traffic Regulation Orders (TRO) are Askham, Crosby Ravensworth, Dufton, Kings Meaburn, Melmerby, Nenthead, Orton, Ousby, Glenridding, Patterdale, Ravenstonedale and Temple Sowerby.
A report by Westmorland and Furness Council Traffic Management Manager and Road Safety Coordinator states that the council is engaging with Barrow Town Council and Ulverston Town Council about 20mph plans and road safety but makes no mention of any plans for engagement on the subject with Penrith Town council.
Having invited applications a total of 49 Town / Parish Councils and one Resident Group submitted applications for 20mph schemes with 79 locations identified in those applications with 24 of the applications from town and parish councils across Eden accounting for 38 locations.
Westmorland and Furness Council had allocated funding of £300,000 to the Priority Investment Fund to support the scheme for 20mph policy and implementation in 2023/24 across the three Localities. Around £100,000 of this funding has been used already in 2023/24 to purchase a large number of signs and posts for the delivery of the schemes in 2024/25.
Due to the time taken to determine and agree the policy and the subsequent scheme application process, £200,000 of the funding allocation remains unspent at the end of 2023/24 is to be carried forward to 2024/25 to support the councils cost of consultation, engagement and progressing the Traffic Regulation Order’s to complete the schemes proposed.
It has now emerged that Westmorland and Furness Council is also expecting to receive match funding contributions from Town and Parish Councils during the initial consultation stage and if during the detailed design process additional measures such as gateway road markings are required, then further contributions will also be sought from Town and Parish Councils by Westmorland and Furness Council.
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